In controlled, germ free environments and with antibiotic treatments found in many laboratories that routinely use nude mice, they can live almost as long as normal mice (18 months to two years). The life span of nude mice is normally 6 months to a year. Since nude females have underdeveloped mammary glands and are unable to effectively nurse their young, nude males are bred with heterozygous females. ) Mice with a targeted deletion in the FOXN1 ('knockout' mice) also show the 'nude' phenotype. (Humans with mutations in FOXN1 also are athymic and immune deficient. Nude mice have a spontaneous deletion in the FOXN1 gene. For these reasons, nude mice are less popular in research today. In addition, knockout mice with more complete defects in the immune system have been constructed (e.g. Most strains of nude mice are slightly 'leaky' and do have a few T cells, especially as they age. Moreover, the absence of functioning T cells prevents nude mice from rejecting not only allografts (grafts of tissue from other mice) but also xenografts (grafts of tissue from another species). graft rejection (requires both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells)īecause of the above features, nude mice have served in the laboratory to gain insights into the immune system, leukemia, solid tumors, AIDS and other forms of immune deficiency as well as leprosy.killing of virus-infected or malignant cells (requires CD8+ cytotoxic T cells).delayed-type hypersensitivity responses (require CD4+ T cells).cell-mediated immune responses, which require CD4+ and/or CD8+ T cells.antibody formation that requires CD4+ helper T cells.Therefore they are unable to mount many types of adaptive immune responses, including: Because they lack a thymus, nude mice cannot generate mature T lymphocytes. Grist at Ruchill Hospital's Brownlee virology laboratory in Glasgow. Nude mice were first discovered in 1962 by Dr. Then in 2000, the gene responsible for the mutation was identified as a member of the Fox gene family and the nomenclature was updated to Foxn1nu. Originally they were described as nu and this was updated to Hfh11nu when the mutated gene was identified as a mutation in the HNF-3/forkhead homolog 11 gene. The nomenclature for the nude mouse has changed several times since their discovery. The genetic basis of the nude mouse mutation is a disruption of the FOXN1 gene. These xenografts are commonly used in research to test new methods of imaging and treating tumors. The nude mouse is valuable to research because it can receive many different types of tissue and tumor grafts, as it mounts no rejection response.

The phenotype (main outward appearance) of the mouse is a lack of body hair, which gives it the 'nude' nickname. Lab mouse strain lacking immunity and fur A nude mouseĪ nude mouse is a laboratory mouse from a strain with a genetic mutation that causes a deteriorated or absent thymus, resulting in an inhibited immune system due to a greatly reduced number of T cells.

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