Effects of the re-innervation of organotypic skin explants on the epidermis

The nervous system takes part in skin homeostasis and interacts with skin cells. In in vitro organotypic skin models, these interactions are lost owing to the absence of nerve endings. We have developed an in vitro organotypic skin model based on a re-innervated human skin explant using primary sensory neurons from the dorsal root ganglia of rats. After 10 days of co-culture between skin explant and neurons, a dense network of nerve fibres was observed. The epidermis and dermis presented nerve fibres associated with cellular body from sensory neurons introduced in the co-culture. Epidermal thickness, cell density and quality of re-innervated skin explant were all higher when skin explants were re-innervated by sensory neurons at 10 days of culture. Proliferation of epidermal cell was not modified, but the apoptosis was significantly diminished. Hence, this innovative model of co-cultured skin explants and neurons allows better epidermal integrity and could be useful for studies concerning interactions between the skin and its peripheral nervous system.