Quantitative results of the analysis of functional and histological parameters corresponding to the work "Comprehensive histological, histochemical and immunohistochemical characterization of the human pediatric foreskin reveals region-specific features relevant for tissue engineering"

This dataset corresponds to the quantitative data generated in the work entitled "Comprehensive histological, histochemical and immunohistochemical characterization of the human pediatric foreskin reveals region-specific features relevant for tissue engineering”.
The human foreskin (HF) is a complex structure containing an external foreskin layer (EFS), an internal foreskin layer (IFS) and an intermediate connective tissue (ICT). Although HF is commonly used as a cell source for research and tissue engineering, its structure and composition remain incompletely understood. In this study, we performed a comprehensive histological, histochemical characterization of HF as compared with skin, oral mucosa and urethral tissues. Results showed that EFS was histologically similar to human skin, with abundant rete ridges and papillae and skin appendages, whereas IFS was smoother and lacked glands. Both the EFS and IFS contained abundant vessels and nerves. The epithelial layer of EFS and IFS expressed pancytokeratin and cytokeratins CK10 and CK15, and were negative for CK7 and CK8/18, resembling skin and oral mucosa. However, CK19 was strongly positive in IFS and negative in EFS, comparable to the mucosa and, partially, to urethra. Thickness of the epithelium and the cornified stratum, and the number of cell layers and Langerhans cells were similar in EFS, IFS and skin, but significantly differed from oral mucosa and urethra. No differences were found for Merkel cells, and the percentage of proliferating cells was significantly higher in EFS, followed by IFS, and was significantly higher than skin, oral mucosa and urethra. Basement membrane components, including PAS-positive structures and collagen type-IV, were similar among tissues, although the urethra tended to show lower expression. At the stromal level, IFS contained more proteoglycans stained with alcian blue than EFS, whilst collagen, elastic fibers, versican, biglycan and collagen-III showed no significant differences between both foreskin regions and decorin was higher in EFS. The ICT displayed abundant vascular, lymphatic, neural, and smooth muscle components, with only minor differences between EFS and IFS. These results suggest that both the EFS and IFS closely resemble human skin, but have region-specific adaptations, with EFS showing greater epithelial complexity, pigmentation, and cell proliferation, and IFS displaying some oral mucosa features. These findings support the idea that EFS and IFS are integrated regions of a single organ and suggest their preferential use for skin and oral mucosa tissue engineering, respectively.