Long‐term culture of skin biopsies: maintenance of fibroblast production and competency of reprogramming

Dec 20, 2025FEBS open bio

Keeping skin tissue samples alive long-term while preserving cell growth and ability to change cell type

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Abstract

Culturing skin biopsy samples for 6-16 months generates primary fibroblasts that retain their identity and integrity.

  • Fibroblast morphology and physiology are maintained over long-term culture.
  • Older generations of fibroblasts remain proliferative, though at a decreased rate.
  • Transcriptional changes occur with extended culture, but no large DNA deletions or amplifications are detected.
  • Spontaneous DNA mutations in fibroblast generations are random and not linked to specific signaling pathways.
  • Fibroblasts cultured for 16 months and over 16 generations maintain the ability to be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells.

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Full Text

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