Figure 1.

Experimental setup. 6‐mm skin punch biopsies were taken from the patients with small fiber neuropathy and the healthy controls and were divided into two 3‐mm parts each. One half was used for intraepidermal nerve fiber density (IENFD) assessment with specific antibodies against protein gene product‐9.5. In the second half, the epidermis was separated manually from the dermis. Both parts were then cut into small pieces and placed into cell culture flasks. Magnetic‐activated cell sorting (MACS) was used to purify the initially mixed skin cell culture and to gain human epidermal keratinocytes (hEK) for epidermis formation. Human dermal fibroblasts (hDF) were used to build a dermal layer. hEK were seeded on top of the dermal layer to generate a full‐thickness skin equivalents (FTSE).