title: Cytokine gene deleted mice in the study of gastrointestinal inflammation.
abstract: The major experimental and intellectual advance in gastroenterology in recent years has been the observation that mice with deletions in specific cytokine genes develop a spontaneous inflammatory bowel disease. Inflammatory bowel disease has also been seen in a number of other mouse strains with perturbed immune responses. The driving force for disease in a number of these models is the normal bacterial flora. These studies show that the gut immune system is in homeostasis with the antigens of the flora, but inappropriate T-helper 1 (Th1)-type responses to the flora cause severe gut injury and since the antigenic stimulus persists, the consequence is chronic inflammation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatric Gastroenterology, St Bartholomew's and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry, St Bartholomew's Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: T T
authors.initials: TT
authors.lastname: MacDonald
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000502:physiology; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D004751:Enteritis / Q000276:immunology; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D007249:Inflammation / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D016753:Interleukin-10 / Q000235:genetics; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D007376:Interleukin-2; D016753:Interleukin-10