WIKIMEDIA, RAMABiomedical scientists have long relied on experimentation in mice to explore human disease and evaluate drug candidates. But mouse models do not accurately reflect the genetic and proteomic responses to acute inflammatory stress in humans, according to a new study. The findings, published today (February 11) in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, detail the oft-suspected limits of murine models for studying inflammatory response, and emphasize the need for research on human physiology.
“We’re not saying don’t use animal models, but we need to recognize that simple model systems do not reproduce complex human disease,” said Ronald Tompkins, a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the study.
But Peter Ward, a professor of pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School who was not involved in the research, said the study doesn’t render mouse models irrelevant. “The fact that mice responses do not mimic the rather uniform responses in humans may be due to the fact that mice, but not humans, are inbred,” said Ward in an email to The Scientist. The inflammatory responses of mice are highly dependent on genetic background, so “until other mouse strains are studied, the authors need to be ...
