Preliminary Survival Studies on Autologous Cultured Skin Fibroblasts Transplantation by Injection

Abstract

In the correction of aesthetic impairments on the face, dermal, and superficial subcutaneous defects, adequately safe implant material is required. Cultured autologous skin fibroblasts, as a protein repair system, create a living injectable system that has been utilized effectively to treat rhytids, depressed scars, subcutaneous atrophy, acne irregularities, and laser wounds. To evaluate the new method, we have investigated the survival and collagen secretion of autologous transplanted fibroblasts. In this study, rabbit fibroblasts were cultured and expanded. Cells (8 × 107/ml) were injected into the superficial and deep dermal junction of the dorsal ears. Two rabbits were injected independently with labeled [3H]TdR fibroblasts; similarly, eight rabbits were given unlabeled transplanted cells in the right ear and vehicle in the left. Each site was injected three times with the same amount of cells every 2 weeks. The grafts were evaluated for 5 months. After explantation, the samples were collected from the injected sites and stained with autoradiography, H&E, and sirius red, respectively. According to the histological observations, the [3H]TdR-labeled cells survived and large amounts of embryo fibroblasts were found in the experimental subgroup of the labeled cell group. The depth of dermis was significantly different between the experimental subgroup (701.3 ± 31.5 μm) and the control subgroup (638.3 ± 23.9 μm) of the unlabeled group (p < 0.01). There was also a significant difference of collagen III between the experimental subgroup (2.63 ± 1.41 cm2) and the control subgroup (1.05 ± 0.90 cm2) (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference of collagen I between the experimental subgroup (56.25 ± 14.41 cm2) and the control subgroup (55.41 ± 16.59 cm2) (p > 0.05). The results obtained demonstrate that the distinction of the depth of dermis should be interpreted by the increase of collagen III, instead of collagen I, which is produced by the transplanted fibroblasts. The investigation indicated that transplanted autologous skin fibroblasts could provide a potential and effective approach to treat minor facial tissue deficiencies.