CULTIVATION OF KERATINOCYTES ON POLY HEMA AND THEIR MIGRATION AFTER INVERSION

This study demonstrates how the pretreatment of poly HEMA disks with b ovine serum influences the adhesion of human keratinocytes in vitro. T he ability of these cells to migrate from poly HEMA disks to a polysty rene petri dish surface colonized with irradiated 3T3 cells is also ev aluated. The stimulatory effect of 24-h preincubation of the poly HEMA disks with bovine serum on the keratinocyte adhesion and growth was d ependent on the concentration of the serum used, The keratinocytes mig rated from the poly HEMA disks to polystyrene colonized with irradiate d 3T3 cells. The numerous cells which migrated from the poly HEMA were positive for cytokeratin 10 (suprabasal layers) after 3 weeks and for cytokeratin 1 (cornified layer) after 1 month. These results seem to be encouraging for further experiments with respect to clinical applic ation.