Effects of extracellular matrix on the growth characteristics of human dermal papillae cells in vitro.

Background: In humans, dermal papillae cells (DPCs) are surrounded by basal membranes. However, conventional in vitro culture conditions for DPCs do not include extracellular matrix (ECM).

Aim: To investigate the effects of different ECM types on the characteristics of cultured human DPCs.

Methods: Freshly isolated human DPCs were inoculated onto plates precoated with type IV collagen, fibronectin, Matrigel or hyaluronate. Cell migration, growth and viability were measured. Real-time quantitative (q)PCR and western blotting were used to detect the influence of different ECM types on the expression of DPC-specific biomarkers.

Results: In planar culture, type IV collagen and fibronectin had a beneficial effect on the migration, aggregation and viability of DPCs, in contrast to Matrigel and hyaluronate. Real-time qPCR revealed that significantly increased expression of mRNA was seen only for neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in the Matrigel group, whereas versican, NCAM and α-SMA all decreased significantly in the hyaluronate group. In the type IV collagen and fibronectin groups, mRNA expression of the above genes did not change significantly. Western blotting indicated that there were no significant differences in expression of the above proteins between the four groups and the control group.

Conclusion: In planar culture, exogenous ECM types (Matrigel, type IV collagen, hyaluronate and fibronectin) changed the growth characteristics of DPCs, but they did not affect the characteristics associated with the biological functions of DPCs.