A Dermal-Epidermal Junction-Inclusive Skin Model Enabled by Controllable Hydrogel Swelling
- 1Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology , , Lerchenfeldstrasse 5 , ,
Abstract
Tissue engineered skin models are important tools for the in vitro study of physiological and pathophysiological processes as well as the evaluation of therapeutic strategies and the efficacy of pharmaceutical and cosmetic compounds. Replicating the functional anatomy of cutaneous tissue is a crucial aspect in ensuring that observations made using these models are translatable to the actual situation in native skin. However, most contemporary full-thickness skin models neglect the reconstruction of the undulated microtopography of the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), which not only contributes to the biological functionality of the skin (e.g., stem cell niches), but also affects tissue mechanics and drug diffusion. Herein, we fabricated bilayer skin models with DEJ-like microtopographies introduced by interfacial wrinkling between a hydrogel and a nanofibrous membrane through a controllable swelling–deswelling approach. The interfacial wrinkles contributed to the structural integrity of the bilayer models. Their formation could be induced in the presence of living cells through mechanical stress-driven buckling instabilities, thus differentiating the process from commonly used prepatterning techniques. The bilayer models supported the coculture of human dermal fibroblasts and human epidermal keratinocytes and the formation of stratified epithelia. Our findings provide a potential alternative method to introduce DEJ-like anatomical features into full-thickness skin tissue models.
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BibTeX
@article{hammer2026dermalepidermal,
title = {{A Dermal-Epidermal Junction-Inclusive Skin Model Enabled by Controllable Hydrogel Swelling}},
author = {Tobias Hammer and Tobias Spirig and Markus Rottmar and Katharina Maniura-Weber and Kongchang Wei and René M. Rossi},
journal = {ACS Omega},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.1021/acsomega.6c07765},
url = {https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/doi/10.1021/acsomega.6c07765/5463426/A-Dermal-Epidermal-Junction-Inclusive-Skin-Model},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - A Dermal-Epidermal Junction-Inclusive Skin Model Enabled by Controllable Hydrogel Swelling
AU - Tobias Hammer
AU - Tobias Spirig
AU - Markus Rottmar
AU - Katharina Maniura-Weber
AU - Kongchang Wei
AU - René M. Rossi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - ACS Omega
DO - 10.1021/acsomega.6c07765
UR - https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/doi/10.1021/acsomega.6c07765/5463426/A-Dermal-Epidermal-Junction-Inclusive-Skin-Model
AB - Tissue engineered skin models are important tools for the in vitro study of physiological and pathophysiological processes as well as the evaluation of therapeutic strategies and the efficacy of pharmaceutical and cosmetic compounds. Replicating the functional anatomy of cutaneous tissue is a crucial aspect in ensuring that observations made using these models are translatable to the actual situation in native skin. However, most contemporary full-thickness skin models neglect the reconstruction of the undulated microtopography of the dermal-epidermal junction (DEJ), which not only contributes to the biological functionality of the skin (e.g., stem cell niches), but also affects tissue mechanics and drug diffusion. Herein, we fabricated bilayer skin models with DEJ-like microtopographies introduced by interfacial wrinkling between a hydrogel and a nanofibrous membrane through a controllable swelling–deswelling approach. The interfacial wrinkles contributed to the structural integrity of the bilayer models. Their formation could be induced in the presence of living cells through mechanical stress-driven buckling instabilities, thus differentiating the process from commonly used prepatterning techniques. The bilayer models supported the coculture of human dermal fibroblasts and human epidermal keratinocytes and the formation of stratified epithelia. Our findings provide a potential alternative method to introduce DEJ-like anatomical features into full-thickness skin tissue models.
SN - 2470-1343
ER -