Research Article

In Vitro Construction of Scaffold-Free Bilayered Tissue-Engineered Skin Containing Capillary Networks

Figure 2

(a) The morphological observation of coculture of fibroblast and endothelium after 20 days. Abundant matrix secretion and lumen-like structures could be observed by light microscopy. Arrows point to the lumen-like structure. (b) Factor VIII immunofluorescence showed that the lumen-like structures were formed by endothelial cells and distributed throughout the construct. Green was the Factor VIII positive staining, and red was the cell nuclei. (c) HE staining of bilayered tissue-engineered skin. HE staining showed that the skin exhibited a stratified epidermis composed of a cuboidal basal layer, suprabasal layers, a granular layer expressing filaggrin and transglutaminase, and a stratum corneum. In dermis, a large number of cells gathered in the collagen fiber. Triangles point to the epidermis, and arrows point to the dermis. (d) Factor VIII immunostaining of bilayered tissue-engineered skin. Dark brown stain was positive for factor VIII. Results showed a large number of factor VIII expressed endothelium distributed in dermis forming lumen-like structure. Arrows point to the lumen-like structure. ((e) and (f)) TEM observation of ultrastructure of capillary in bilayered tissue-engineered skin. The morphology showed that capillary had a typical micro-blood vessel structure.
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