House dust mite (HDM)-induced severe asthma in mouse

House dust mite (HDM) is the most frequent in-house allergen known to induce allergic symptoms in humans. HDM-induced chronic allergic asthma in mouse is a state-of-the-art model, closely reflecting features of clinical asthma.

The chronic allergen challenge involves repeated exposure to HDM for a period of several weeks. This exposure treatment has been shown to reproduce hallmarks of human asthma, including Th2-driven allergic inflammation and pronounced airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR). The HDM model provides the opportunity to assess novel therapeutics for treatment of chronic asthma. Additional stimulation can be performed, e.g. with respiratory viruses, to investigate impaired antiviral host responses in allergic preconditions, which have been associated with asthma exacerbations.

• In-life assessment of lung function: airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) – airway response to methacholine exposure
  
• Bronchoalveolar lavage: total and differential cell counts by flow cytometry, cytokine levels by ELISA or MSD
• Histology imaging: conventional stainings, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, and pathology scoring 
• Immunophenotyping: flow cytometric analysis of immune cells
  
• Ex-vivo restimulation of immune cells
• Lung tissue analysis: RNA isolation for gene expression analysis, cytokine levels by ELISA or MSD
  

This animal model was established within the U-BIOPRED project in cooperation with GSK.