Innovative two-chamber skin explant model to study skin diseases in marine fish

Maaike Vercauteren developed the innovative in vitro 'two-chamber skin explant model'. Pieces of skin are kept and examined in a controlled laboratory environment. This is no sinecure, because the skin must continue to function as if it were still attached to the fish. However, the tested setup proved successful: after one day in the model, the skin did not show any major differences with a control skin. Minimal differences were observed in the tissue structure of the skin, the number of cell layers, and a number of specific cell types (e.g. mucosal cells). There were no unwanted growing or dying skin cells; only the epidermis appeared to thicken (to a limited extent). The developed model is seen as a comprehensive and valuable in vitro alternative for experiments with live fish, and offers opportunities for further, in-depth research into the causes of skin ulcers.