Inflammatory myopathies: narrowing the differential diagnosis.

Muscle weakness is a feature of numerous conditions, but the muscle weakness of inflammatory myopathies, especially polymyositis and dermatomyositis, is easy to differentiate by specific clinical, laboratory, electromyographic, and histological features.

Engraftment of human synovium into severe combined immune deficient mice. Migration of human peripheral blood T cells to engrafted human synovium and to mouse lymph nodes.

To determine the feasibility of using the C.B-17 scid/scid (severe combined immune deficient, SCID) mouse as a recipient of human synovial xenografts, we have engrafted human synovium under the renal capsule of SCID mice, and determined synovial graft survival and histologic characteristics 4 to 7 wk after tissue implantation. Both normal and inflammatory synovial tissue grew well in SCID mice and maintained histologic and phenotypic components of the fresh synovial tissue before implantation.