Lessons and Limits of Mouse Models

  1. Robert L. Fairchild3
  1. 1Section of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
  2. 2Section of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
  3. 3Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, The Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio 44195
  1. Correspondence: achong{at}uchicago.edu

Abstract

Seminal studies in rabbits and rodent transplantation models by Peter Medawar revealed that cellular processes, rather than humoral antibodies, are central to the acute rejection of transplanted organs, and much of basic transplantation research continues to be focused on the biology and control of these cells, which were subsequently shown to be T cells. However, the success of current immunosuppression at controlling T-cell-mediated rejection has resulted in an increasing awareness of antibody-mediated rejection in the clinic. This, in turn, has fueled an emerging interest in the biology of allospecific antibodies, the B cells that produce these antibodies, and the development of mouse models that allow their investigation. Here we summarize some of the more widely used mouse models that have been developed to study the immunobiology of alloreactivity, transplantation rejection and tolerance, and used to identify therapeutic strategies that modulate these events.

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