Significance of Mouse Models in Dissecting the Mechanism of Human Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Diseases (EGID)

Evidence suggests that eosinophils play a significant role in promoting several gastrointestinal diseases, and animal models are the significant tools to understand the pathogenesis of eosinophil-associatd inflammatory disorders. The focus of this review is on the significance of mouse models that mimic the characteristics of human eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases. Eosinophils are the important leukocytes with diverse functions in the gastrointestinal tract, such as excretion of intestinal parasites and promoting the pathogenesis of a numerous allergic gastrointestinal disorders like food allergy, parasitic infection, allergic gastroenteritis, allergic colitis, and eosinophilic esophagitis. Among these gastrointestinal diseases, the eosinophilic esophagitis is the most recently recognized disease and the mouse models are proven to be an effective tool to understand the pathophysiology of disease and to test novel treatment strategies. Based on patients allergic conditions and the gene overexpressed in human EGID, a number of gene overexpressed and allergen-challenged mouse models of gastrointestinal disorders were developed. These models were utilized to explore the mechanism(s) that promotes the eosinophil-mediated gastrointestinal diseases including the role of the eosinophil responsive cytokines and chemokines. Herein, we have provided a detailed overviews of the mouse models of gastrointestinal disorders that mimic the human eosinophilic gastrointestinal diseases and can be utilized as a tool for understanding the diseases pathogenesis and developing novel therapeutic targets.