Abstract

Ex vivo dermal toxicology analyses are crucial for replacement of in vivo test methods and have been of interest in recent years for testing cosmetics, drugs, and chemicals. Development of an appropriate reconstructed epidermis model might overcome the limitations of monolayer culture systems. In the current study, we used the immortalized human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT) to develop an ex vivo 3D cell culture system for keratinocyte-based toxicity analysis. Mouse embryonic fibroblast-conditioned medium and Matrigel matrix-based 3D HaCaT cell culture systems expressed skin-related genes and proteins in culture. The 3D HaCaT cultures demonstrated a skin-like phenotype and response against selected test compounds. Reliable results were obtained compared to monolayer HaCaT cells which were exposed to selected chemicals for 1 h and 24 h. Gene expression profiles of 3D HaCaT cell cultures and monolayer cultures were completely different after administration of the test compounds.

Overall, our results showed that a 3D HaCaT cell culture system generated in Matrigel matrix exerted a skin epidermis-like phenotype. Consequently, 3D HaCaT cell cultures may be an acceptable test method for conducting in vitro toxicology experiments.