Resumen
Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) is an extremely aggressive type of skin cancer. Nevertheless, the development of new therapeutic approaches to treat this malignancy is hampered by the absence of in vitro culture models. Furthermore, prospective clinical trials are scarce due to the rarity of the disease. Thus, the aim of the present study was to generate organotypic epithelial raft cultures (OERCs) of MCC by growing primary human keratinocytes and MCC cell lines on artificial dermal equivalents. Histological and immunohistochemical analyses confirmed the proliferation of MCC cell lines. In addition, gene expression analysis showed genes that were differently expressed in the tumor cells and the keratinocytes. In brief, we developed a three-dimensional cell culture model of MCC that can potentially be used for evaluating the efficacy and selectivity of new drug candidates against this disease.