Biological function and application of melanocytes induced and transformed by mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells

BACKGROUND: A large number of autologous melanocytes are required for surgical treatment of depigmentation diseases such as vitiligo. The purpose of this experiment is to explore the application of melanocytes induced by mesenchymal stem cells to clinical treatment. Therefore, we have induced mouse bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) into melanocytes (miMels) in the previous experiment. This experiment continues the previous experiment to further study the biological functions of miMels and their application in tissue engineering. METHODS: We examined whether miMels can produce active tyrosinase, melanin, and response to α-MSH. The ability of miMels to produce melanin to keratinocytes was tested by co-culture. By applying miMels to tissue-engineered skin, the survival and function of miMels on the surface of nude mice were verified. RESULTS: MiMels can produce active tyrosinase and melanin, and can pass melanin to the co-cultured keratinocytes. Under the stimulation of α-MSH, the active tyrosinase and melanin content of miMels increased. We tried to apply it to the establishment of tissue-engineered skin and obtained tissue-engineered skin containing miMels. Then we tried to transplant tissue-engineered skin on the back skin of nude mice and succeeded. The transplanted miMels survived in local tissues, synthesized active tyrosinase and melanin, and expressed the marker protein of melanocytes. CONCLUSION: In short, miMels can be used as a cell source for tissue engineering skin. MiMels not only have a typical melanocyte morphology but also have the same biological functions as normal melanocytes. What's more important is its successful application in mouse tissue-engineered experiments.