Airway remodeling and serum total immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels in a murine model of asthma

Mouse Models of Asthma: Characteristics, Limitations and Future Perspectives on Clinical Translation

Asthma is a complex and heterogeneous inflammatory airway disease primarily characterized by airway obstruction, which affects up to 15% of the population in Westernized countries with an increasing prevalence. Descriptive laboratory and clinical studies reveal that allergic asthma is due to an immunological inflammatory response and is significantly influenced by an individual's genetic background and environmental factors. Due to the limitations associated with human experiments and tissue isolation, direct mouse models of asthma provide important insights into the disease pathogenesis and in the discovery of novel therapeutics. A wide range of asthma models are currently available, and the correct model system for a given experimental question needs to be carefully chosen. Despite recent advances in the complexity of murine asthma models, for example humanized murine models and the use of clinically relevant allergens, the limitations of the murine system should always be acknowledged, and it remains to be seen if any single murine model can accurately replicate all the clinical features associated with human asthmatic disease.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Asthma

Asthma is one of the worldwide respiratory health problem that affect children and adult. Current treatment strategies such as conventional and allergen immunotherapy still fall behind. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have wide regenerative capacity and immunoregulatory activity with their wide range of secretions and contact dependent manner. In this review, we focus on the current treatment strategies for asthma and MSCs as a new therapeutic tool.

Animal models: an important tool in mycology

Animal models of fungal infections are, and will remain, a key tool in the advancement of the medical mycology. Many different types of animal models of fungal infection have been developed, with murine models the most frequently used, for studies of pathogenesis, virulence, immunology, diagnosis, and therapy. The ability to control numerous variables in performing the model allows us to mimic human disease states and quantitatively monitor the course of the disease. However, no single model can answer all questions and different animal species or different routes of infection can show somewhat different results. Thus, the choice of which animal model to use must be made carefully, addressing issues of the type of human disease to mimic, the parameters to follow and collection of the appropriate data to answer those questions being asked. This review addresses a variety of uses for animal models in medical mycology. It focuses on the most clinically important diseases affecting humans and cites various examples of the different types of studies that have been performed. Overall, animal models of fungal infection will continue to be valuable tools in addressing questions concerning fungal infections and contribute to our deeper understanding of how these infections occur, progress and can be controlled and eliminated.

Time sequence of airway remodeling in a mouse model of chronic asthma: the relation with airway hyperresponsiveness

During the course of establishing an animal model of chronic asthma, we tried to elucidate the time sequence of airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR), airway inflammation, airway remodeling, and associated cytokines. Seven-week-old female BALB/c mice were studied as a chronic asthma model using ovalbumin (OVA). After sensitization, mice were exposed twice weekly to aerosolized OVA, and were divided into three groups depending on the duration of 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 12 weeks. At each time point, airway responsiveness, inflammatory cells, cytokines in bronchoalveolar lavage fluids (BALF), serum OVA-specific IgE, IgG1, IgG2a, and histological examination were carried out. AHR to methacholine, increased levels of OVA-specific IgG1 and IgG2a, and goblet cell hyperplasia were continuously sustained at each time point of weeks. In contrast, we observed a time-dependent decrease in serum OVA-specific IgE, BALF eosinophils, BALF cytokines such as IL-13, transforming growth factor-beta1, and a time-dependent increase in BALF promatrix metalloproteinase-9 and peribronchial fibrosis. In this OVA-induced chronic asthma model, we observed airway remodelings as well as various cytokines and inflammatory cells being involved in different time-dependent manners. However, increased airway fibrosis did not directly correlate with a further increase in airway hyperresponsiveness.

CD28 costimulation is critical for experimental allergic asthma in HLA-DQ8 transgenic mice

The objective of this study was to investigate the contribution of the CD28 costimulatory molecules to allergen-induced primary and chronic inflammatory responses. To this end, we have developed and characterized a short ragweed allergen-induced asthma model involving sensitization of HLA-DQ transgenic mice followed by intranasal challenge with allergen. Forty-eight hours after primary challenge, sensitized DQ8 mice developed pulmonary eosinophilic inflammation, airway hyperreactivity, Th2 cytokines, and IgE/IgG1 Ab. This allergic inflammatory response was absent in H-2Abeta(0) and DQ8/CD28(0) mice. Secondary rechallenge with allergen 4 weeks later induced even greater inflammatory changes in the airways of DQ8 mice with eosinophils being the predominant inflammatory cells while only pulmonary lymphocytosis was observed in DQ8/CD28(0) mice. No inflammation was detected in H-2Abeta(0) mice. Proliferation and cytokine profile studies demonstrated that CD28 regulates T-cell activation and effector function. Therefore, CD28 is essential for the extrinsic asthma and can be a target for immunotherapy.