Mice are important animal models for studying human pathogens, but they have limitations: not all human viruses replicate in mice and often these animals do not reproduce aspects of disease and immune responses. Mice implanted with human bone marrow, liver, and thymus (BLT mice) develop human immune systems, but most pathogens infect other cell types. When human lung tissue is introduced into BLT mice, a lung implant develops that is populated with immune cells and can be used to study infection with a variety of human pathogens.
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