Effects of Calcium on the Epidermis in a Skin Organ Culture

Background: Calcium plays a role in the proliferation and differentiation of keratinocytes. In a normal situation, the calcium concentration forms a gradient across the epidermal layers. Calcium is sparse in the basal layer and spinous layer. Skin organ culture is a useful model for conducting research on various aspects of skin biology. Skin organ culture systems are used for defining factors that affect homeostasis when elucidating the modulatory effects of biologic response modifiers, drugs and physical agents on the skin and also when studying complex aspects of cutaneous biology in normal and diseased skin. Objective: In this study, we investigated the effects of extracellular calcium on the epidermis in a skin organ culture. Methods: We compared the skin organ culture patterns under various culture conditions (calcium 0.1, 0.7, 1.4 and 2.0 mM). Results: H&E staining showed different phenotypes according to the calcium concentration and IHC also showed different phenotyes compared to that of keratin 10, involucrin, filaggrin, loricrin and PCNA. Conclusion: As a result, we concluded that the calcium gradient is also an important factor in skin organ culture to maintain the vivo-like environment and the appropriate calcium concentration is 1.4 mM.