Profiling of genes expressed in cultured human keratinocytes established from the bulge region of hair follicles.

We established a culture method of human keratinocytes from the bulge region of a plucked hair follicle, that contains multipotent epithelial stem cells with high proliferative potential. Using our method, keratinocyte cultures were successfully obtained from all subjects without invasive skin biopsies. We compared the gene expression profiles between the cultured keratinocytes derived from human hair-follicle-bulge (bulge–derived keratinocytes; BDKs) and neonatal human epidermal keratinocytes (NHEKs), and between BDKs from donors with atopic dermatitis and non-atopic controls using microarray analysis. Keywords: expressin profiling Two cell cultures, BDK vs. NHEK cells. 18 BDKs; derived from eighteen healthy volunteers , 6 NHEKs; purchased from Kurabo (Osaka, Japan). One replicate per array.