Preclinical Studies Using Mouse Models of Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Abstract

Most therapeutic agents used in clinical practice today were originally developed and tested in animal models so that drug toxicity and safety, dose–responses, and efficacy could be determined. Retrospective analyses of preclinical intervention studies using animal models of different diseases demonstrate that only a small percentage of the interventions reporting promising effects translate to clinical efficacy. It is becoming increasingly appreciated that the failure to translate therapeutic efficacy from bench to bedside may be due, in part, to selection of an animal model that may not recapitulate the immunopathologic features of the human disease under investigation. This is especially true for preclinical investigations using mouse models of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD; Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis). One potential strategy for improving our ability to discover new therapeutics that may have a reasonable chance of success in clinical trials is to identify the most immunologically relevant mouse models of human IBD. This chapter presents a critical evaluation of the different mouse models of IBD and discusses their utility in preclinical studies.