Naturalizing mouse models for immunology.

ABSTRACT

Laboratory mice have provided invaluable insight into mammalian immune systems. Yet the immune phenotypes of mice bred and maintained in conventional laboratory conditions often differ from the immune phenotypes of wild mammals. Recent work to naturalize the environmental experience of inbred laboratory mice-to take them where the wild things are (to borrow a phrase from Maurice Sendak), via approaches such as construction of exposure histories, provision of fecal transplants or surrogate mothering by wild mice, and rewilding-is poised to expand understanding, complementing genetic and phylogenetic research on how natural selection has shaped mammalian immune systems while improving the translational potential of mouse research.