Laboratory Animals - June Issue - 249

Lundberg

249

in all cases a balance between practicalities, economics,
what is accessible (for example, genetic modiﬁcations)
and the expected translational value. In some cases, it
might even not be an animal model that is best suited.
For instance, for nutritional and metabolic studies
merely considering the intestinal ecological habitat without regard to host-microbiome interaction and immune
system development, in vitro gut simulator systems could
be a valid alternative.

Conclusions
All models, including rodents colonized with human
GM, have their pros and cons. It is essential to understand these thoroughly in order to obtain valid insights.
Careful consideration should be given when immunological pathways are important for the model, whereas
the humanized microbiota concept is probably more
robust for nutritional studies and phenotype transfer
studies. However, as exempliﬁed throughout this
review, there are still hypotheses to be tested that may
help in optimizing the concept.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to acknowledge conversations with
former colleagues at the University of Copenhagen and
Taconic Biosciences.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conﬂicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.

Funding
The author(s) received no ﬁnancial support for the research,
authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD
Randi Lundberg

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6646-6036

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http://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-6646-6036 http://www.orcid.org/0000-0002-6646-6036

Laboratory Animals - June Issue

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