In Vitro Model of Human Cutaneous Hypertrophic Scarring using Macromolecular Crowding.

It has been shown that in vivo tissues are highly crowded by proteins, nucleic acids, ribonucleoproteins, polysaccharides, etc. The following protocol applies a macromolecular crowding (MMC) technique to mimic this physiological crowding through the addition of neutral polymers (crowders) to cell cultures in vitro. Previous studies using Ficoll or dextran as crowders demonstrate that the expression of collagen I and fibronectin in WI38 and WS-1 cell lines are significantly enhanced using the MMC technique.

Identification of Secreted Aspartyl Protease 1 (MfSAP1) and Its Role in Extracellular Matrix Degradation.

is the most abundant eukaryotic microbial genus on human skin. Similar to many human-residing fungi, has high metabolic potential and secretes a plethora of hydrolytic enzymes that can potentially modify and structure the external skin environment. Here we show that the dominant secreted protease isolated from cultured is an aspartyl protease that is secreted and active at all phases of culture growth.