Faculty Collaboration Database

Application of intestinal xenografts to the study of enteropathogenic infectious disease. Adv Exp Med Biol 1997;412:31-5

Date

01/01/1997

Pubmed ID

9191987

DOI

10.1007/978-1-4899-1828-4_3

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-0030912804 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)

Abstract

We have developed, characterized and utilized paired segments of fetal intestine subcutaneously transplanted into heterogenic nude or SCID mice as a model system for the study of viral, bacterial and protozoal pathogens. The xenografted intestine matures in the recipient mouse and is biochemically and anatomically comparable to intestine from age-matched, whole-animal controls. The grafted tissue is free of ingesta, intestinal flora, extra-intestinal secretions and host immune functions. The transplanted intestine is long-lived and easily accessible to manipulation and harvest. Tissue from a single fetal donor can be used to create numerous xenografts allowing for tightly controlled experiments. Xenografts enable the study of species-specific intestinal pathogens in the homologous intestinal tissue thus preserving biological applicability of results. Xenografts can be used to study pathogenesis, pathophysiology and therapeutics of enteric disease in situations where such study might otherwise be prohibitively expensive or confounded by intercurrent variables inherent to whole animals. Xenografts have important advantages over in vitro models that may not approximate the in vivo biology of the intestine in the disease process.

Author List

Gelberg HB, Thulin JD, Kuhlenschmidt MS

Author

Joseph Thulin DVM, MS Emeritus Professor in the Physiology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Disease Models, Animal
Intestinal Diseases
Intestines
Mice
Mice, Nude
Mice, SCID
Rabbits
Swine
Transplantation, Heterologous