ABSTRACT
Mice are arguably the experimental workhorse of immunological research and mouse models have paved the way for the discovery of numerous important mechanisms related to human inœammation, T-helper and B-cell differentiation, the pathogenesis of allergy and asthma [1,2], immune response to parasitic infection, and so on [3]. However, signi¢cant differences with respect to immunophysiology between mouse and human as represented in allergic sensitization and response to challenge often limit extrapolation to humans [2,4-8]. Given the redundancy of the immune response, there are likely to be alternate or compensatory mechanisms in different mammalian species that result in a similar outcome. Porcine anatomy and physiology are generally more similar to human [9] making pig a leading candidate for human xenotransplantation [10]. It is dif¢cult, however, to support an argument for the superiority of a swine model over a mouse model to study human immunity based solely on particular mouse-human differences because the status of many immune-based mechanisms in swine are less well characterized. Several review articles have been recently published highlighting common and unique features of the porcine immune system [11-13]. The consensus of these articles is that there is a general similarity between pigs and humans in the molecular, cellular and organ-level immune response, but much more work is needed to de¢ne the details.
