Objective: Artificial esophagus of various materials has been tried without satisfactory results. Effects of fibroblasts derived from human dermis on cultured human esophageal epithelial cells were investigated regarding their preservation over time.
Methods: Human esophageal epithelial cells (EE) were subcutaneously injected either alone or with human esophageal fibroblasts (EF) or human dermal fibroblasts (DF) into the flank of the BALB/cA-nu, scid mice of 8 to 12 weeks of age. At 10 days, 3, 6 and 48 weeks after transplantation, randomly chosen mice were sacrificed and the rates of nodule formation at the injected sites were compared. Nodules were examined histologically by hematoxylin and eosin staining and immunohistochemically with anti- Ki-67 and anti-p63 antibodies.
Results: The rate of subcutaneous epidermoid cyst formation at 10 days was 33% for EE, and 67% for EE with EF, and 100% for EE with DF transplantation. At 6 weeks after transplantation, subcutaneous cysts were not found for EE alone or EE with EF, but were detected in 100% of the mice transplanted EE with DF and still preserved at 12 months.
Conclusions: Long-term preservation of regenerated esophageal epithelium in vivo after transplantation of cultured esophageal epithelial cells is possible by co-transplantation of human dermal fibroblasts.