Immune-deficient mouse models for analysis of human stem cells

TE Meyerrose, P Herrbrich, DA Hess, JA Nolta - Biotechniques, 2003 - Future Science
Biotechniques, 2003Future Science
The field of murine models of xenotransplantation has grown immensely over the past two
decades. The explosive growth in this field is in part due to the fact that good in vitro
methods do not exist yet to allow examination of human stem cell homing into the bone
marrow compartment versus other tissues, long-term survival of human stem cells, or
differentiation into tissues outside of the hematopoietic system. Since these important
aspects of human stem cell biology can be examined in vivo using immune-deficient mice …
The field of murine models of xenotransplantation has grown immensely over the past two decades. The explosive growth in this field is in part due to the fact that good in vitro methods do not exist yet to allow examination of human stem cell homing into the bone marrow compartment versus other tissues, long-term survival of human stem cells, or differentiation into tissues outside of the hematopoietic system. Since these important aspects of human stem cell biology can be examined in vivo using immune-deficient mice, the number of different strains and models is constantly increasing. The current review discusses the merits and drawbacks of each immune-deficient mouse xenograft system as it stands to date and reviews how each immune-deficient mouse model has been used to further our knowledge of human hematopoietic stem cell biology.
Future Science