Usefulness and optimization of mouse models of allergic airway disease

Abstract

The usefulness of animal models for studying human asthma has been heavily debated.1–12 Although mouse models in particular provide several potential advantages for studying allergic airway disease (Table I),13 these advantages disappear if these models differ from the human disease to such an extent that lessons learned from the mouse model are misleading. In this regard investigators who think mouse models are useful have summarized important similarities between experimental mouse allergic airway disease and human asthma (Table II),1,5,10,14 whereas investigators who are more concerned that the wrong model will teach the wrong lessons have summarized relevant differences between mouse and human pulmonary biology and between mouse experimental allergic airway disease and human asthma (Table III).1,2,4–6,9 Our main purpose here, aside from providing this summary of similarities and differences, is to consider the usefulness of mouse models of allergic airway disease/asthma from a pragmatic and predictive rather than a theoretic standpoint. Specifically, we will (1) consider examples in which the use of mouse models for discovering novel asthma therapeutics has led investigators astray or identified an agent or strategy that proved useful and (2) consider how the use of mouse models for this purpose might be optimized.