(Evotec) Modeling Inflammatory Bowel Disease in mice with “Humanized” immune system

Abstract

Background

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a recurrent chronic inflammatory disease with unknown etiology. Dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) induced colitis is a common preclinical mouse model in IBD research. DSS colitis involves activation of the submucosal immune system and can be used to study ulcerative colitis characteristics along different phases (acute, chronic and remission) and predict therapeutic efficacy. However, improving translation to human is still needed and the use of mice with Human Immune System (HIS) may provide a better model to study human immune system responses in vivo. HIS mice are created by transplanting human immune cells or their progenitors into highly immunodeficient recipient mice, thereby "humanizing" their immune systems. In this study we discuss colitis features under humanized conditions and benefits for testing therapeutics in preclinical studies.

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