Surgical approaches to create murine models of human wound healing

Wound repair is a complex biologic process which becomes abnormal in numerous disease states. Although in vitro models have been important in identifying critical repair pathways in specific cell populations, in vivo models are necessary to obtain a more comprehensive and pertinent understanding of human wound healing. The laboratory mouse has long been the most common animal research tool and numerous transgenic strains and models have been developed to help researchers study the molecular pathways involved in wound repair and regeneration. This paper aims to highlight common surgical mouse models of cutaneous disease and to provide investigators with a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of these models for translational applications.