Experimental infection with human papillomavirus type 1 of human hand and foot skin.

Warts of the hands and feet are common cutaneous diseases. Human papillomaviruses types 1 and 2 are probably responsible for most of the lesions. It is difficult to study these infections in the laboratory, since human papillomaviruses do not replicate in cell cultures or experimental animals. We have recently developed a system in which xenografts of human tissues were infected with HPV-11 and transplanted beneath the renal capsule of athymic mice. We now report the adaptation of this system to the induction of HPV-1 infection of xenografts of fetal human foot and hand skin. The experimentally produced warts have the same morphology as naturally occurring lesions. HPV-1 DNA and papillomavirus capsid antigen are abundant in the experimentally infected tissues.