Hidradenitis Suppurativa Preclinical Studies: Models and Results

Abstract

Hidradenitis suppurativa is a solely human disease for which—unlike for other inflammatory dermatoses—applied animal models are not available. In order to study skin cell immunology under conditions which approximate the in vivo functions, maintenance of structural tissue integrity in experimental models is essential. Consequently, several ex vivo human models using lesional, perilesional hidradenitis suppurativa and control healthy skin, have been described, which claim to represent fast and relatively simple methods to investigate the pathophysiology of hidradenitis suppurativa and to preclinically detect the effectiveness of candidate therapeutic agents. At least some of these models seem to approximate the in vivo situation by maintaining patients' skin architecture for several days and expressing biomarkers also detected in hidradenitis suppurativa skin in vivo. Validation still remains to be performed for the majority of the models by evaluating the ex vivo efficacy of drugs, which are introduced in clinical studies and/or have been approved for HS treatment.