Implantation of human keloid into athymic mice

In the interest of developing an animal model for keloids, human keloid dermis was implanted in the subcutaneous tissues of athymic (nude) mice. Subsequent growth resulted in a lesion with histology similar to the original keloid. Fibroblasts were cultured from keloid dermis. When the fibroblasts alone were implanted in the subcutaneous tissues of nude mice, growth of a visible lesion was again produced. The fibroblasts had proliferated and deposited collagen in an abnormal fashion with the histology resembling the parent keloid. Further research could develop this into a reliable animal model to allow in vivo experimentation.