Modeling Asthma in Mice Using Common Aeroallergens.

Abstract

Aeroallergens are common inducers of asthma in humans and are widely used in experimental research to generate animal models of this disease. In this chapter, we describe four mouse models of aeroallergen-induced asthma. These models differ in type and number of allergens used, route and duration of allergen exposure, and utilization of an adjuvant, representing different mechanistic variants of asthma. In addition, we describe several basic methods that are commonly used in mechanistic studies of asthma in mice. These methods include tracheotomy and bronchoalveolar lavage, cytospin and morphologic analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage cells, and lung harvest and digestion for generation of single-cell suspension.