Establishment of a humanized model of liver using NOD/Shi-scid IL2Rgnull mice.

Severely immunodeficient NOD/Shi-scid IL2Rg(null) (NOG) mice are used as recipients for human tissue transplantation, which produces chimeric mice with various types of human tissue. NOG mice expressing transgenic urokinase-type plasminogen activator in the liver (uPA-NOG) were produced. Human hepatocytes injected into uPA-NOG mice repopulated the recipient livers with human cells. The uPA-NOG model has several advantages over previously produced chimeric mouse models of human liver: (1) the severely immunodeficient NOG background enables higher xenogeneic cell engraftment; (2) the absence of neonatal lethality enables mating of homozygotes, which increased the efficacy of homozygote production; and (3) donor xenogeneic human hepatocytes could be readily transplanted into young uPA-NOG mice, which provide easier surgical manipulation and improved recipient survival.