TRANSFORMED AND NONTRANSFORMED HUMAN T-LYMPHOCYTES MIGRATE TO SKIN INA CHIMERIC HUMAN SKIN SCID MOUSE MODEL

To study human T cell migration to human skill in vivo, we grafted sev ere combined immunodeficient mice with 500-mu m thick human skin. Two weeks after grafting, epidermal and dermal structures in the grafts we re of human origin, When we intraperitoneally injected grafted mice wi th clones of the human HUT-78 T cell line derived from a patient with cutaneous T cell lymphoma and Sezary syndrome, we detected in the graf ts the rare V beta 23-J beta 1.2 T cell receptor transcripts character istic for the HUT-78 clones, These signals were found 2-6 d after cell injection in about 40% of the grafted and HUT-78 cell injected mice b ut not in grafts from mice that received no exogenous T cells, In cont rast to HUT-78 cells, which only accumulate in low number, grafts topi cally challenged with nickel sufate in vaseline from mice that were in jected with autologous nickel-reactive T cell lines led to massive acc umulation of T cells within 3 d. Only scattered T cells accumulated in the skin when grafted mice received vaseline plus T cells, nickel sul fate alone, T cells alone, or nickel sulfate plus an allogeneic nickel -nonreactive T cell clone, When the T cell lines were labeled with the fluorochrome PKH-26 before cell injection, spots of fluorescent label in the size and shape of cells were found in the grafts challenged wi th nickel, Together, these results clearly demonstrate that human T ce lls migrate to human skin in this chimeric human/mouse model.