PHILIP W ASKENASE, MD
Osteopathic Medicine in New Haven, CT

5602305, Feb 11, 1997

Mar 31, 1994

8/220900

Jordan S. Pober - Guilford CT
Christopher C. W. Hughes - New Haven CT
Allan G. Murray - Branford CT
Philip W. Askenase - Hamden CT
Peter Petzelbauer - Vienna, AT

Yale University - New Haven CT

C02N 1500, A61K 4900

800 2

The present invention describes a novel immunodeficient rodent model comprising an organ graft, such as a human skin graft, said graft containing microvessels lined by endothelial cells, human T lymphocytes and, optionally, at least one agent capable of substantially depleting the rodent's Natural Killer cells. The human T lymphocytes are engrafted and circulating in the animal's blood, enabling interaction with the endothelial cells which can be allogenic to the donor for the skin graft. The immunodeficient rodent used can be a SCID mouse. Preferably, the endothelial cells are provided by grafting said human skin with an intact dermal superficial vascular plexus. This immunodeficient rodent can be used as a model for studying inflammatory human immune responses of the engrafted T lymphocytes to foreign antigen as well as for studying human allograft rejection, e. g. human microvessel destruction and the T cell-endothelial cell in vivo interactions associated with a human allograft rejection.