AN EXPERIMENTAL-MODEL OF PEMPHIGUS VULGARIS IN GUINEA-PIGS

The purpose of inducing experimental pemphigus vulgaris (PV) in laboratory animals is to study the mechanisms of onset of this severe autoimmune disease, which affects the skin and mucous membranes in man. It is not yet possible to cure PV, and before corticosteroids appeared the mortality was looa. Creation of a model of PV on newborn BALB/c mice [5] by passive transfer of the IgG fraction of serum from patients with PV (IgGPV), although confirming the pathogenetic role of autoantibodies in PV, gave no idea about the other pathogenetec factors involved in the genesis of the foremost histopathological feature of the disease, namely acantholysis (separation of cells of the stratum germinativum of the stratified squamous epithelium). This model of pemphigus likewise cannot be accepted as adequate because, with the ending of injection of pemphigus antibodies, the vesicular eruptions on the animal's skin spontaneously disappear and the mice remain alive. In the investigation described below methods of inducing manifestations of PV in guinea pigs were screened in order to create a model of PV that corresponds to the criteria of reproduction of the autoimmune disease [2].