Isolation, cultivation and identification of human fetal follicular bulge cells in vitro

    WANG Hongª²Tao, CHEN Bi, TIAN Rong, TANG Chaoª²Wu, TAO Ke

    Department of Burn Surgery, Xijing Hospital, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi¬ðan 710033, China, Department of Dermatology, Air Force General Hospital, Beijing 100036, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To develop a rapid and reproducible method for the culture of pure follicular bulge cells. METHODS: 5-7 month fetal follicular bulge was isolated and incubated in collagenase¢ñfor 6-8 h, and bulge cells were purified using trypsin, identified using immunocytochemical methods;flow cytometry and MTT assay were applied to measure the clone rate and cell cycle. RESULTS: About 100 follicular bulges were obtained each hour, and the bulge cells were purified by trypsin. The cell percentage in phase G1 was 88.20%, the clone formation rate was 18.2% and the K19 positive cells could be detected. CONCLUSION: A rapid and reproducible method has been developed for the culture of pure follicular bulge cells which represent many characters of some stem cells. ......