T-cell-mediated injury to keratinocytes: insights from animal models of the lichenoid tissue reaction.

The lichenoid tissue reaction is a histopathologic pattern of skin inflammation noted in a diverse group of clinical diseases. Although few of these diseases are reflected in animal models, select murine models of skin inflammation recapitulate salient characteristics of the lichenoid tissue reaction pattern. Animal models of predominantly T-cell-mediated skin inflammation induced by the adoptive transfer of T-cell clones, by the generation of autoreactive T-cell receptor transgenic T cells, and by genetic manipulation of the epidermis are reviewed. Their relevance for a better understanding of the lichenoid tissue reaction is discussed.