Animal models for atopic dermatitis: are they relevant to human disease?

Over the last decade, animal models of atopic dermatitis (AD) have received increasing attention. They include NC/Nga mice, a hapten-induced mouse model, and transgenic and knockout mouse models. Although the pathogenesis of skin inflammation elicited in these models and that in AD are not quite the same, it is pertinent to ask what these animal models really tell us about the pathogenesis and possible therapies for the disease. NC/Nga mice may yield information relevant to the dissection of the crucial components of the pathophysiology of AD rather than the assessment of potentially therapeutic agents for its treatment. A hapten-induced mouse model created by repeated application of 2,4,6-trinitrochlorobenzene (TNCB) is a simple and reproducible one. This model offers several advantages over others: by changing hapten and the mouse strain used, various types of chronic inflammation, probably reflecting heterogeneity in clinical presentation of AD, can be induced; this model is also of enormous value in its high reproducibility as well as the ease of quantitative assessment by measuring ear thickness. Among various transgenic and knockout mouse models, the IL-18-transgenic mouse is one of the closest available mouse models of human AD, although the onset of the AD-like lesions in the IL-18-transgenic mice is such a late event. Although these mice all have significant disadvantages, it is important to review the current literature on the models in the hope that one may identify useful areas for investigation.