Autoradiographic Study of the Dna Synthetic Activity in Human Skin Cultured in Vitro: Effects of Stripping and the Inhibition by Glucosamine

Abstract

Fragments of stripped and unstripped human skin were cultured in vitro and pulse- labelled with tritiated thymidine at 24-hr intervals. The stimulation of proliferation due to stripping was measured on autoradiographs as the increase in number of cells incorporating tritiated thymidine. The DNA synthetic activity of stripped specimens rose to 10 times the basal level by the 4th day of culture. Such a large increase cannot be accounted for by a uniform acceleration of all phases of the cycle and other interpretations are discussed. D-glucosamine added to the culture medium was found to inhibit the increase in DNA synthetic activity found in stripped specimens