Establishment of gerbil epidermal cell culture and comparative analysis of the behaviour of these cells with cultured mouse epidermal cells

The culturing of gerbil epidermal cells is described for the first time. Cells grew first as clumps, formed monolayers of proliferating basal cells and then differentiated, giving rise to a stratified epithelium. To regulate the process of proliferation and differentiation, two kinds of medium were used: the standard one and a low-Ca++ medium. Under these two conditions, cultured gerbil cells were compared with mouse epidermal cell cultures. The cultures maintained in the low-Ca++ medium showed greater differences between the two species, the gerbil epidermal cells displaying a greater proliferative capacity and maintained capacity to differentiate, than did the murine cells. It is believed that this in vitro model may lead to a better understanding of the difference between the two species in vivo, and might explain their differing susceptibility to cutaneous tumour induction.