Long-term maintenance of psoriatic human skin on congenitally athymic (nude) mice.

Transplantation of involved psoriatic and nonpsoriatic human skin onto congenitally athymic (nude) mice has been performed successfully. Although biopsies at selected intervals demonstrate that the excess glycogen deposition normally seen in psoriasis is no longer consistently present, the psoriatic grafts did retain the usual characteristic histologic differences throughout the life of the animal, up to 11 weeks. This grafting procedure potentially represents a useful method whereby the study of psoriasis can be made in a nonhuman, living system.