Abstract
During wound healing process, dermal fibroblasts infiltrate into wound site and secrete collagen to repair the wound. The fibroblasts are usually subjected to tensional force that stimulates cell infiltration and proliferation. Therefore, it is important to measure the shrinkage force of skin and to evaluate the effect of force on dermal fibroblasts. It is possible to simulate the dermal layer of skin by embedding the fibroblasts in three-dimensional collagen gel in vitro. Using this culture model, the collagen gel shrinkage by the fibroblasts could also simulate the wound shrinkage of healing process. In this study, we developed the culturing and monitoring device for skin fibroblast-seeded collagen gel to measure shrinking force. The fibroblast-seeded collagen gels were cultured in the culture medium with or without ascorbic acid. As the results, the shrinking force under both culturing conditions increased with increase in the culture time. The force under the ascorbic acid dosing condition increased rapidly compared to that under the no-dosing condition.
