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Autoimmunity's next top models

Nature Medicine volume 18, pages 66–70 (2012)Cite this article

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Animal models are indispensable for studying disease pathogenesis and discovering new treatments for human organ-specific autoimmune diseases. However, there is a need of more refined paradigms for these models. Ideally, a small-animal model should represent the clinical features of human disease in their entirety. Disease in the animals should develop spontaneously, should be followed over an extended period of time and should involve the genetic, molecular and cellular elements that contribute to human pathogenesis.

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Figure 1: Autoimmunity's next top model: a perfectionist's wish list.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hartmut Wekerle is at the Department of Neuroimmunology, Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology, Munich, Germany.,

    Hartmut Wekerle

  2. Department of Neuroimmunology, Alexander Flügel is at the Institute for Multiple Sclerosis Research, Göttingen, Germany.,

    Alexander Flügel

  3. Lars Fugger is at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences and MRC Human Immunology Unit, Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.,

    Lars Fugger

  4. George Schett is at the Department of Internal Medicine 3, Institute for Clinical Immunology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.,

    Georg Schett

  5. David Serreze is at the Department of Immunology, Inflammation and Hematology, The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.,

    David Serreze

Authors
  1. Hartmut Wekerle
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  2. Alexander Flügel
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  3. Lars Fugger
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  4. Georg Schett
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  5. David Serreze
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Correspondence to Hartmut Wekerle.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wekerle, H., Flügel, A., Fugger, L. et al. Autoimmunity's next top models. Nat Med 18, 66–70 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.2635

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