Acanthosis and aberrant epidermal marker expression of hBD2, Elafin, K10 and K16 in the inflamed human skin of the huPBL-SCID-hu Skin allograft model.

<p><b>A.</b> Histology (H&E staining) of human skin grafts from SCID beige mice 21 days after infusion (i.p.) of huPBMC. Representative photographs are shown after PBS (left photograph) and huPBMC infusion (right photograph). Photograph shows increased epidermal thickness (acanthosis) and elongated fingerlike epidermal projections into the dermis (rete ridges) and large lymphocyte infiltration after huPBMC infusion. Abnormal presence of nuclei in the stratum corneum (parakeratosis) and infiltration of lymphocytes in the epidermis (exocytosis) (bottom-right photograph). 20×, 20×, 40× magnifications respectively. <b>B.</b> Quantitative microscopic histological analysis of the epidermal thickness (µm) of human skin grafts following infusion of PBS and huPBMC. Mean±SEM are shown for n = 3 and 6 upon PBS and huPBMC infusion resp. <b>C.</b> Immunohistochemistry of K10, K16, hBD2 and Elafin (brown) in human skin grafts from SCID beige mice 21 days after infusion (i.p.) of PBS (top panels) or huPBMC (lower panels). Photograpsh show representative examples, summarized data are given in the figures. Mean±SEM percentages of the area positive for the indicated markers is shown for n = 3 and 5–8 upon PBS and huPBMC infusion resp. 10× magnification. <b>D.</b> Ki-67 expression (brown) in the stratum basale of the epidermis. The insert shows a higher magnification. A representative example of n = 12 is shown. 20× magnification. Graphs show summarized data of Ki67+ cells/mm length of basement membrane after PBS or huPBMC infusion in human skin biopsies (mean±SEM, of n = 4 and 6, resp.).