Histological identification of prolonged survival of a skin allograft on an extensively burned patient.

We applied skin allografts obtained from 38 unrelated volunteers to a very extensively burned female patient. Seven months after skin transplantation, one allograft from a male still survived clinically. In order to ascertain that the graft site resulted from growth of the male donor skin, the allografted area and patient's own unburned normal area were examined by the fluorescent staining of Y-body (Y-chromosomal fluorescence). Y-body was detected in 57 per cent and 65 per cent of cells from the grafted area, whereas no fluorescence was detected in the patient's own unburned normal area. These observations suggest that one allograft from an unrelated donor survived for 221 days on a very extensively burned subject.