Transformed and nontransformed human T lymphocytes migrate to skin in a chimeric human skin SCID mouse model.

To study human T cell migration to human skill in vivo, we grafted severe combined immunodeficient mice with 500-mu m thick human skin. Two weeks after grafting, epidermal and dermal structures in the grafts were of human origin, When we intraperitoneally injected grafted mice with 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 grafts the rare V beta 23-J beta 1.2 T cell receptor transcripts characteristic 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 but not in grafts from mice that received no exogenous T cells, In contrast to HUT-78 cells, which only accumulate in low number, grafts topically challenged with nickel sufate in vaseline from mice that were injected with autologous nickel-reactive T cell lines led to massive accumulation of T cells within 3 d. Only scattered T cells accumulated in the skin when grafted mice received vaseline plus T cells, nickel sulfate 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 with nickel, Together, these results clearly demonstrate that human T cells migrate to human skin in this chimeric human/mouse model.