House Dust Mite Allergy Models—Reliability for Research of Airway Defensive Mechanisms

Abstract

Extensive research of respiratory physiology and diseases of the airways and lungs provides better understanding of mechanisms of diseases and it is a source of new data with potential clinical application. The majority of the data in the field of airway defensive reflexes were obtained from guinea pig model, as the most convenient one. Neurophysiology and neuropharma-cology of the cough reflex—which is exclusively mediated by the vagus nerve, share close similarities between guinea pigs and humans. The models used to study pathological processes and their influence on airway-defensive reflexes use sensitization with ovalbumin—the protein from chicken egg, which does not mimic allergies within human respiratory system. House dust mites (HDM) (Dermatophagoides pteronyssius and Dermatophagoides farinae) represent frequent human aeroallergens, however the HDM models are used considerably less than ovalbumin models. The primary objective of this review is to focus on already validated models of HDM-induced airway diseases to see, whether some of them are suitable to study mechanisms of peripheral cough plasticity in a condition of HDM-induced pathological processes. The main purpose of future use and validation of HDM model is to produce higher ability to translate the results obtained in animal models to human cough research.