Isolation and Culture of Human Dermal Microvascular Endothelial Cells.

Primary endothelial cells are needed for angiogenesis studies, and more particularly in the field of tissue engineering, to engineer pre-vascularized tissues. Investigations often use human umbilical vein endothelial cells due to their extensive characterization, but also because they are easy to obtain and isolate. An alternative is the use of human dermal microvascular endothelial cells, more representative of adult skin angiogenesis and vascularization processes. This chapter presents a detailed methodology to isolate and culture microvascular endothelial cells from skin biopsies based on enzymatic digestion and mechanical extraction.

Tissue-engineered 3D melanoma model with blood and lymphatic capillaries for drug development.

While being the rarest skin cancer, melanoma is also the deadliest. To further drug discovery and improve clinical translation, new human cell-based in vitro models are needed. Our work strives to mimic the melanoma microenvironment in vitro as an alternative to animal testing. We used the self-assembly method to produce a 3D human melanoma model exempt of exogenous biomaterial. This model is based on primary human skin cells and melanoma cell lines while including a key feature for tumor progression: blood and lymphatic capillaries. Major components of the tumor microenvironment such as capillaries, human extracellular matrix, a stratified epidermis (involucrin, filaggrin) and basement membrane (laminin 332) are recapitulated in vitro. We demonstrate the persistence of CD31+ blood and podoplanin+/LYVE-1+ lymphatic capillaries in the engineered tissue. Chronic treatment with vemurafenib was applied to the model and elicited a dose-dependent response on proliferation and apoptosis, making it a promising tool to test new compounds in a human-like environment.

Tissue-engineered 3D human lymphatic microvascular network for in vitro studies of lymphangiogenesis.

This protocol describes a unique in vitro method for the generation of a 3D human lymphatic network within native connective tissue devoid of any exogenous material such as scaffolds or growth factors. In this five-stage protocol, human lymphatic endothelial cells (LECs) cocultured with dermal fibroblasts spontaneously organize into a stable 3D lymphatic capillary network. Stage 1 involves the isolation of primary fibroblasts and LECs from human skin. Fibroblasts are then cultured to produce connective tissue rich in extracellular matrix (stage 2), onto which LECs are seeded to form a network (stage 3). After stacking of tissue layers and tissue maturation at the air-liquid interface (stage 4), the 3D construct containing the lymphatic microvascular network can be analyzed by microscopy (stage 5). Lymphatic vasculature generated by this approach exhibits the major cellular and ultrastructural features of native in vivo human dermal lymphatic microvasculature and is stable over many weeks. The protocol for generating a 3D construct takes 6 weeks to complete, and it requires experience in cell culture techniques. The system described here offers a unique opportunity to study the mechanisms underlying lymphatic vessel formation, remodeling and function in a human cell context.