T-cell transfer and cytokine/TCR gene deletion models in the study of inflammatory bowel disease

Until recently there existed no appropriate immunological animal models for human inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Today a number of models, mostly in the mouse and rat, have proved useful in the study of several aspects of IBD, including the histopathology and the disease-inductive and -protective cell types, subsets and cytokines, for example CD4+ T cells, IFN gamma, IL-12, IL-2, IL-10 and TGF beta. Furthermore, these recent IBD models make it possible to examine various chemo- and immunotherapeutic approaches. This review focuses on IBD development in adoptive T-cell transfer models and in gene-deleted mice.