CELL AND TISSUE-CULTURE MODELS IN DERMATO LOGY - THE ESTABLISHED MODELS AT FRANKFURT-DERMATOLOGY-CENTER

In the course of the Third Frankfurt Talks, for the first time a congr ess in dermatology was dedicated exclusively to cell and tissue cultur e models, The complexity of a whole organ, in this case the skin, coul d be reduced to single aspects without losing the holistic context. Wa ys of managing this were discussed on an inter-disciplinary level by d ermatologists, physiologists, pharmacologists and biologists. The resu lts are also expected to be useful to the clinician. Focus points of i n vitro investigations for dermatology are wound closure models and th e use of in vitro skin for transplantation in the therapy of non-heali ng ulcers and vitiligo. As an alternative to animal experiments, cultu res of human cells are gaining increasing influence in drug testing. T he effect of glucocorticosteroids on normal skin fibroblasts, keratino cytes and permanent cell lines is discussed as an example, and in vitr o models of diseases such as psoriasis are established. Additionally, basic events such as differentiation and ageing have been modelled in cell cultures of melanocytes and keratinocytes. Mechanical stress, UV radiation and nicotine are discussed as inductors.