Infection of mice with Francisella as an immunological model.

This unit describes the utility of various mouse models of infection for studying pathogenesis and adaptive immune responses to the facultative intracellular bacteria pathogen Francisella tularensis. By judicious use of different combinations of mouse and bacterial strains, as well as different routes of infection, murine tularemia models may be used to explore a complete picture of F. tularensis infection and immunity. Moreover, studies using Francisella, particularly the Live Vaccine Strain (LVS), serve as a convenient and tractable model system that appears to be representative of mammalian host responses to intracellular pathogens in general.