Protocol for in vitro skin fibrosis model to screen the biological effects of antifibrotic compounds

Abstract

Summary: Controversies remain over the standard procedures for the modeling of skin fibrosis and its use in in vitro testing of different drugs. Here, we report a reproducible protocol for producing a skin fibrosis model using human dermal fibroblasts seeded in collagen hydrogel. Detailed procedures for the fabrication of cell/hydrogel constructs, fibrosis induction, protein extraction for western blotting analysis are presented along with how this model can be employed for investigating the possible anti-fibrotic functions of certain chemical compounds.

Keywords

• Biophysics
• Cell biology
• Tissue engineering