Parallel cultures of adult rat vibrissa dermal papilla cells and skin fibroblasts revealed differences between the two cell types with respect to a number of criteria. In particular the dermal papilla cells demonstrated a distinctive single cell morphology, and at confluence formed cell aggregates radically different from regular fibroblast multilayering and patterning. This finding confirmed r...

Dermal elastic fibres are extracellular matrix protein complexes produced by fibroblasts and involved in skin elasticity. Elastin fibres decrease with age as a result of reduced synthesis and increased degradation, resulting in skin sagging and reduced skin elasticity. In this study, we show that retinol (ROL), known to enhance dermal collagen production, is also enhancing elastin fibre formati...

BACKGROUND The fibrous proteins of extracellular matrix (ECM) produced by dermal fibroblast contributes to the maintenance of connective tissue integrity. OBJECTIVE This study is carried out to identify the bioactive ingredient from natural products that enhances ECM production in dermal fibroblasts. METHODS Bioassay-directed fractionation was used to isolate the active ingredient from natu...

Decellularized extracellular matrix components isolated from animal sources have shown much clinical promise in the treatment of several wound care indications including a variety of dermal ulcerations (diabetic, pressure, venous, e.g.), full-thickness trauma wounds affecting the skin and skeletal muscle, and post-operative surgical wounds. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the biocompa...

TGFbeta induces fibrogenic responses in fibroblasts. Reactive oxygen species (ROS)/nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) oxidase (NOX) may contribute to fibrogenic responses. Here, we examine if the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC), the NOX inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium (DPI) and the selective NOX1/NOX4 inhibitor GKT-137831 impairs the ability of TGFbeta to induce profibrotic ge...

PURPOSE The level of constitutive plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1 (PAI-1) expression in cultured human orbital fibroblasts is considerably lower than that found in dermal fibroblasts. This divergence in PAI-1 expression implies differences in the pericellular proteolytic environment and, therefore, in the turnover of extracellular matrix. In this article, the authors examine the effect o...

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) can locally suppress T cell-mediated immune responses. It has been shown that defective self-tolerance in early prediabetic female non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice can be attributed to the impaired interferon-gamma (IFN-γ)- induced IDO expression in dendritic cells of these animals. As IFN-γ can induce IDO in both dendritic cells and fibroblasts, we asked the ques...

Ageing, the progressive functional decline of virtually all tissues, affects numerous living organisms. Main phenotypic alterations of human skin during the ageing process include reduced skin thickness and elasticity which are related to extracellular matrix proteins. Dermal fibroblasts, the main source of extracellular fibrillar proteins, exhibit complex alterations during in vivo ageing and ...

BACKGROUND The dilatation and tortuosity observed in varicose veins provide evidence for progressive venous wall remodeling associated with abnormalities of smooth muscle cells and extracellular matrix. The present study was designed to examine if the phenotypic modulations observed in the venous smooth muscle cells of patients with varicose veins were also present in their dermal fibroblasts. ...

Hair follicle development and growth are regulated by Wnt signalling and depend on interactions between epidermal cells and a population of fibroblasts at the base of the follicle, known as the dermal papilla (DP). DP cells have a distinct gene expression signature from non-DP dermal fibroblasts. However, their origins are largely unknown. By generating chimeric mice and performing skin reconst...