Optimization of an ex vivo wound healing model in the adult human skin: Functional evaluation using photodynamic therapy: functional evaluation using photodynamic therapy

Limited utility of in vitro tests and animal models of human repair, create a demand for alternative models of cutaneous healing capable of functional testing. The adult human skin Wound Healing Organ Culture (WHOC) provides a useful model, to study repair and enable evaluation of therapies such as the photodynamic therapy (PDT). Thus, the aim here was to identify the optimal WHOC model and to evaluate the role of PDT in repair. Wound geometry, system of support, and growth media, cellular and matrix biomarkers were investigated in WHOC models (n=11). Subsequently, cellular activity, ECM remodelling and oxidative stress plus gene and protein levels of makers of wound repair measured the effect of PDT on the optimized WHOC. WHOCs embedded in collagen and supplemented DMEM were better organized showing stratified epidermis and compact dermis with developing neo-epidermis. Post-PDT, the advancing re-epithelialization tongue was 35% longer, highly proliferative with CK-14 and p16 increased (p