Ex vivo platform

The development of therapeutics and the evaluation of their efficacy rely on dependable experimental platforms that can recapitulate key in vivo conditions. Our work shows that ex vivo skin reproduces multiple core injury-associated phenotypes that are well suited for mechanistic study and for guiding drug development. These include, among others, cellular senescence, apoptosis, inflammation, and dysregulation of mTOR and Erk signaling pathways.

We developed a protocol to establish an ex vivo skin platform, covering skin preparation, biopsy collection, targeted drug application, tissue incubation, fixation, and downstream assessment of drug effects on signaling pathways and cellular phenotypes. Although the workflow is straightforward, it is intended to be accessible to any laboratory seeking to study fundamental tissue damage responses and the mobilization of cells involved in repair. We expect this protocol to provide a cost-effective, reliable, and reproducible tool that aligns with the 3Rs principles for research, clinical translation, and industrial applications.

The ex vivo platform article can be found at the following link.