A model for the study of autoimmune diseases applied to pemphigus: transplants of human oral mucosa to athymic nude mice binds pemphigus antibodies in vivo.

The present paper describes a new in vivo method to study the action of pemphigus antibodies against human tissue. Oral mucosal biopsies from healthy donors were transplanted to athymic nude mice, which, a week later, were injected with serum from pemphigus patients. From 1 to 5 days after the injection the epithelial transplants were removed and preparations were studied by immunofluorescence microscopy. Pemphigus antibodies were demonstrated in preparations from each of 23 mice which had received pemphigus serum, but in none of 6 which had received control serum. Transplants from about 2/3 of the experimental mice showed intercellular edema of the basal layers of the epithelium and in transplants from 3 mice supra-basilar splitting of the epithelium was found. None of these changes was seen in the control mice. Passive transfer of human serum or lymphocytes to nude mice transplanted with human tissue may be use in future studies of autoimmune diseases, including pemphigus.