BACKGROUND Human cell cultures are being developed to replace various body tissues. OBJECTIVE To assess the safety and efficacy of dermal regeneration with the injection of young autologous fibroblasts obtained from culture containing serum from patients themselves. METHODS Dermal tissue from the groin of five patients was cultivated in M199 medium supplemented with 10% human serum. Four population doublings were obtained. The fibroblasts were injected intradermally into forehead wrinkles and periorbital and paranasal areas. RESULTS At the fourth population doubling, a mean of 3.85 × 10(6) cells/mL was obtained; viability was 98%. Sixty days after completing treatment, with four injections given at 15-day intervals, periorbital tonicity had improved significantly, although the quantity of fibroblasts used resulted in little improvement to surface lines and no improvement at all in deeper wrinkles. After 6 months, no further changes were found beyond the initial results obtained. CONCLUSIONS Injection of skin fibroblasts cultivated in medium supplemented with human serum is a viable technique and provokes no side effects. Four injections given at 15-day intervals containing a total of 6.4 × 10(6) fibroblasts/mL resulted in significant improvement in periorbital skin flaccidity. Further studies should be conducted with larger sample sizes.