Skin tissue engineering is a possible
solution for the treatment of extensive skin defect. The ultimate goal of skin tissue engineering is to restore the complete functions of native skin, but until now the structures and functions of skins are only partially restored. By negative immunoselection (CD45 and
glycophorin A), we isolated and cultivated adult human bone marrow stem cells (hBMSCs) that are of multilineage differentiation potential. In this study, we first demonstrated that by using
gelatin/thermo-sensitive
poly N-isopropylacrylamide (
pNIPAAm) and the immunocompromised mice model, the hBMSCs possess the differentiation potential of epidermis and the capability of healing skin
wounds. The in vitro observations and the results of the scanning electron microscope showed that the hBMSCs can attach and proliferate in the
gelatin/thermo-sensitive
pNIPAAm. To further monitor the in vivo growth effect of the hBMSCs in the skin-defected nude mice, the green fluorescence
protein (GFP) gene was transduced into the hBMSCs by the murine stem cell viral vector. The results showed that the rates of cell growth and
wound recovery in the hBMSC-treated group were significantly higher than those in the control group, which was only treated with the
gelatin/
pNIPAAm (p < 0.01). More importantly, the re-epithelialization markers of human pan-
cytokeratin and
E-cadherin were significantly increased on day 7, day 14, and day 21 after the hBMSC-scaffold with the
pNIPAAM in the mice with skin defects (p < 0.05). Moreover, the stem cell markers of human CD13 and CD105 were gradually decreased during the period of wound healing. In sum, this novel method provides a transferring system for cell
therapies and maintains its temperature-sensitive property of easy-peeling by lower-temperature treatment. In addition, the in vitro and in vivo GFP imaging systems provide a new imaging modality for understanding the differentiation process and the effective expression of stem cells in wound healing.