Tissue culture of migratory skin of the external ear and cholesteatoma: a new research tool.

Abstract

There has been considerable research interest in cholesteatoma in recent years but an understanding of the pathology has been handicapped by the lack of a suitable research model. Animal experiments are unsatisfactory as they may not fully represent the human pathology. In 1975 Rheinwald and Green devised a method of growing skin in tissue culture, using a feeder layer of lethally irradiated fetal mouse fibroblasts. This technique has been adapted for use with otological surgical specimens so that a comparison can be made between skin colonies derived from cholesteatoma matrix, migratory epithelium of the external ear, and normal skin from an extraconchal incision, as well as foreskin from neonatal circumcision as a control. The colonies so produced are then available for study by phase contrast microscopy, conventional light microscopy, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy. Differences in behavior and morphology between the various colonies grown in tissue culture have been demonstrated.