Murine T-Cell Transfer Colitis as a Model for Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Abstract

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a group of severe chronic inflammatory conditions of the human gastrointestinal tract. Murine models of colitis have been invaluable tools to improve the understanding of IBD development and pathogenesis. While the disease etiology of IBD is complex and multifactorial, CD4+ T helper cells have been shown to strongly contribute to the disease pathogenesis of IBD. Here, we present a detailed protocol of the preclinical model of T-cell transfer colitis, which can easily be utilized in the laboratory to study T helper cell functions in intestinal inflammation.