title: Use of Germ-Free Animal Models in Microbiota-Related Research.
abstract: The large intestine is a home for trillions of microbiota, which confer many benefits on the host, including production of vitamins, absorption of nutrients, pathogen displacement, and development of the immune system. For several decades, germ-free animals have been used to study the interaction between the host and its microbiota. This minireview describes the technical aspects for establishing and maintaining germ-free animals and highlights the advantages and disadvantages for germ-free animals as experimental models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar.|Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Maha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Asmakh
authors.affiliation: College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, 123 Alkoudh, Oman.
authors.forename: Fahad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zadjali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D035843:Biomedical Research; D000069196:Gastrointestinal Microbiome; D005856:Germ-Free Life; D023421:Models, Animal
keywords: Germ-free animals; Germ-free mice; Isolator technology; microbiota