Enhanced Spontaneous Skin Tumorigenesis and Aberrant Inflammatory Response to UVB Exposure in Immunosuppressed HPV8 Transgenic Mice

Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) from the beta genus are commensal viruses of the skin usually associated with asymptomatic infection in the general population. However, in individuals with specific genetic backgrounds, such as epidermodysplasia verruciformis patients, or those with immune defects, such as organ transplant recipients (OTRs), they are functionally involved in sunlight-induced skin cancer development, mainly keratinocyte carcinoma. Despite their well-established protumorigenic role, the cooperation between β-HPV infection, impaired host immunosurveillance, and UVB exposure has never been formally demonstrated in animal models. Here, by crossing skin-specific HPV8 transgenic mice with Rag2-deficient mice, we have generated a pre-clinical mouse model, named Rag2