Allergic Contact Dermatitis in the Hamster and in Other Rodents

Abstract

The first, and for a long time the only, experimental animal for the study of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) was the guinea pig (1). Thus the basic studies that related sensitization potential to the ability of a low molecular weight allergen to couple to protein, that established the requirement for viable lymphoid cells (not sera) for the passive transfer of hypersensitivity to simple chemical allergens, and that demonstrated the induction of a specific immunological unresponsiveness to contact allergens, were done in the guinea pig (2,3, 4,5). Indeed, the guinea pig still remains the animal of choice for the identification of contact allergens of man (6,7). In 1968, the technique of measuring increased ear thickness as a way of assessing induced inflammation by contact allergens in the mouse was introduced (8); in contrast to the guinea pig, inflammatory skin reactions on the flank of the mouse are difficult to evaluate since these reactions lack both erythema and easily defined induration. The ear thickness technique recently has been extended to studies of allergic contact dermatitis in the hamster (9,10) and we are using the same methodology to evaluate ACD hypersensitivity in rats (11). This report examines ACD in the hamster and relates it to ACD in other species.