Cytogenetic investigations of the allodermis after intermingled skin grafting.

In most instances intermingled skin transplants done according to the method developed in the PR China are not subject to a generalized rejection. During the healing process there is an integration of the allodermis instead, which eventually becomes covered by outgrowing auto-epidermal cells. To investigate the fate of allogenic cells experiments were done with intermingled skin grafts, using male Wistar rats as recipients and female DA-rats as donors. By studying karyotype analysis of cells growing out from intermingled skin biopsies the presence of viable allogenic cells was demonstrated on days 53 and 111 post-transplantation. It was concluded that the intermingled skin forms a cellular mosaic with different portions of autogenic and allogenic cells.