Establishment of fibroblast cultures.

Fibroblasts are fairly easily isolated from a variety of tissues, in this case skin. The cells are fast growing and can be rapidly expanded from small samples. They are suitable for behavioral, functional, biochemical, and genomic studies. Skin fibroblast cultures are started from explants in which the epidermis is enzymatically removed to prevent contamination of the fibroblasts with epidermal cells. Alternatively, the dermis can be enzymatically dissociated to provide a suspension of fibroblasts.