Investigating a Genetically Diverse Mouse Model for Vasculitis

Emma Hendrix

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2023

Keywords

JMG

JAX Location

In: Student Reports, Summer 2023, The Jackson Laboratory

Abstract

Vasculitis is a disease that is defined by the inflammation of the blood vessels, limiting blood flow to its destination. The collaborative cross recombinant inbred cross (CC-RIX) strain CC032 x CC040 mice were hypothesized to be dying from some form of vasculitis causing death to occur at less than a year of life from kidney failure. However, many diseases may present like one, only to be determined to be an entirely different type of disease. By assessing the phenotypes of the disease, by using ultrasonography, histological sections of organs, ELISA, flow cytometry, and clinical chemistry, new phenotypes were discovered. The flow cytometry returns low levels of T cells, both CD4 and CD8 T cells, as the mice age up, and the clinical chemistry assay showed an elevation in iron in the serum. These results could be caused by a wide variety of disease, such as hemochromatosis, T cell exhaustion, and the inflammation could be indicative of some type of vasculitis as well. Further exploration into the organs and genotyping of this strain must be conducted in order to determine the specific disease that is causing the kidney failure.

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