AUTHOR=Michalak-Micka Katarzyna , Rütsche Dominic , Mazzone Luca , Büchler Vanessa L. , Moehrlen Ueli , Klar Agnes S. , Biedermann Thomas TITLE=Human fetal skin derived merkel cells display distinctive characteristics in vitro and in bio-engineered skin substitutes in vivo JOURNAL=Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology VOLUME=10 YEAR=2022 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/bioengineering-and-biotechnology/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2022.983870 DOI=10.3389/fbioe.2022.983870 ISSN=2296-4185 ABSTRACT=
Human skin contains specialized neuroendocrine Merkel cells responsible for fine touch sensation. In the present study, we performed in-depth analysis of Merkel cells in human fetal back skin. We revealed that these Merkel cells expressed cytokeratin 20 (CK20), were positive for the neuroendocrine markers synaptophysin and chromogranin A, and the mechanosensitive ion channel Piezo2. Further, we demonstrated that Merkel cells were present in freshly isolated human fetal epidermal cells