Use of Biopsy Punch for Skin Biopsies for Fibroblasts Culturing

Fibroblasts can be cultured from human skin biopsies using fetal bovine serum and artificial growth medium. Fibroblasts cultured in this way retain the genetic characteristics of their donor but can be used for experiments where study conditions are much more precisely controlled than they can be in in vivo studies. We plan to culture fibroblasts from Pima Indians for two purposes: 1) to look for an in vitro system to measure insulin resistance, the underlying abnormality in Pima diabetics; and 2) to look for biochemical markers of diabetes or obesity in Pimas employing two-dimensional electrophoresis techniques.