Methods in assessment of airway reactivity in mice

Due to the wealth of reagents and transgenic strains available, mice have become one of the most commonly used model organisms for the study of allergic airway inflammation. One of the major hallmarks of the asthma phenotype in humans is reversible airflow obstruction, or airway hyper-responsiveness. However, the ability to confidently obtain useful physiological responses from such a small animal has presented a large technological challenge in murine studies. Recent advances have provided the technology to obtain lung mechanics through either the forced oscillation technique or plethysmography. Here we describe the utility of these measurements in mouse models of allergic airway inflammation and anaphylaxis.