Antibodies specific for papillary fibroblasts as markers for skin quality

Abstract

Whether or not a sample of skin or of a skin equivalent contains such amount of a papillary fibroblast population as to be considered a normal skin is determined by labelling said skin or skin equivalent with at least one antibody specific for papillary fibroblasts and evaluating the extent of such labelling as a marker for skin or skin equivalent quality.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A regime for determining whether or not a sample of skin or of a skin equivalent contains such amount of a papillary fibroblast population as to be considered a normal skin, comprising labelling said skin or skin equivalent with at least one antibody specific for papillary fibroblasts and evaluating the extent of such labelling as a marker for skin or skin equivalent quality.  
     
     
         2 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 1   , said at least one antibody comprising a monoclonal antibody.  
     
     
         3 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 1   , said at least one antibody comprising a horse, goat, mouse, rat or rabbit antibody.  
     
     
         4 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 3   , said at least one antibody comprising a mouse antibody.  
     
     
         5 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 1   , said at least one antibody comprising the PG4 antibody.  
     
     
         6 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 1   , comprising immunolabelling said skin or skin equivalent with at least one antibody specific for papillary fibroblasts.  
     
     
         7 . A regime for determining the presence of papillary fibroblasts in a given sample, comprising labelling said sample with at least one antibody specific for papillary fibroblasts and evaluating the intensity of any such labelling as a marker for the presence of said papillary fibroblasts.  
     
     
         8 . The determinative regime as defined by    claim 7   , said at least one antibody comprising the PG4 monoclonal antibody.