Using a reconstituted skin culture model we have analysed the effects of oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) and mutant TP53 genes on the proliferation and differentiation of human keratinocytes. Immortal cell lines generated by transfection of early passage normal human keratinocytes with HPV16 E7 plus mutant human TP53 (KN #1), HPV16 E7/E6 (KN #2), or HPV16 E7 plus murine p53 (KN #3) were examined. KN #1 and KN #2 behaved identically, reconstructing a tumor-like epidermis characterized by the lack of differentiation and the presence of an aberrant epidermal architecture. In contrast, KN #3 reconstructed an epidermis that was more similar to that obtained with normal keratinocytes. KN #1 and KN #2 were further characterized by the inversion of the proliferative compartment and the abnormal expression of cytokeratin 19 (CK19). Because p53 function is reduced in these cells, either by heterocomplex formation between endogenous wild-type p53 and transfected mutant p53 or by E6-induced degradation of wild-type p53, we hypothesized that CK19 expression may be normally repressed by wild-type p53. This hypothesis was supported by the strict correlation observed between TP53 mutation and CK19 expression in a set of human skin tumors. CK19 was detected in all eight carcinomas containing a mutated TP53 gene but in none of the 16 carcinomas containing only wild-type TP53. These results illustrate the utility of the in vitro reconstituted skin model for investigating the consequences of genetic alterations in human keratinocytes.