Primary tissue culture of human wart-derived epidermal cells (keratinocytes)

The formation of human skin warts may depend on transformation by human papilloma virus or result from a productive virus infection. To explore this problem, methods were developed for the primary tissue culture of epidermal cells (keratinocytes) derived from wart tissues and normal skin. Wart-derived keratinocytes continued to proliferate for periods exceeding 3 months, but the patterns of cell growth were identical to normal keratinocytes. Electron microscopic and immunohistologic examination of wart-derived cultures did not evidence virion assembly.