Infantile ichthyosis in rats: a new model of hyperkeratotic skin disease.

A new mutation produces neonatal thickening of the epidermis and other classical signs of hyperkeratosis. After periodic exfoliations every 4 days for the first 2 weeks of life the skin becomes clinically normal. The condition is inherited recessively and ascribed to the gene i (infantile ichthyosis) which is located in linkage group I, 36 percent recombinants away from the albino gene, a. The gene affects an unrecognized developmental process in skin that precedes the continuing normal differentiation of epidermal cells in postnatal life.