ABSTRACT
Some time after therapy with cultured keratinocytes was demonstrated, Y. Barrandon and the author carried out a detailed study of the growth potential of individual keratinocytes. Although several related epithelial cell types, such as mammary, urethral, prostatic, urothelial and tracheobronchial are also affected, the action of the protein is restricted to a rather narrow spectrum of epithelial cell types. The nature of the function of p63 in development of squamous epithelia is the subject of controversy, but there is substantial evidence supporting the hypothesis that p63 is a stem cell determinant in these epithelial cell types. The protein p63 is a transcription factor with remarkable properties. The identification of holoclones by immuno-detection of p63, especially the α isoform, is an important and simple means of determining the presence of an adequate number of stem cells in a cultured keratinocyte graft.
