Transgenic mouse models of venous thrombosis: fulfilling the expectations?

During the last 15 years, transgenic mice have been generated that carry defective and/or mutant alleles of the natural anticoagulant pathways and display a spontaneous thrombotic phenotype. With the generation of these mouse lines, better opportunities became available for investigating both existing and novel risk factors for venous thrombosis. In addition, these models could serve as a tool for evaluating novel antithrombotic strategies. This review summarizes these mouse models and evaluates whether they have fulfilled the expectations.