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http://dx.doi.org/10.4014/jmb.1501.01039

Use of Germ-Free Animal Models in Microbiota-Related Research  

Al-Asmakh, Maha (Department of Health Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University)
Zadjali, Fahad (College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University)
Publication Information
Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology / v.25, no.10, 2015 , pp. 1583-1588 More about this Journal
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.
Keywords
Germ-free animals; germ-free mice; microbiota; gnotobiotic; isolator technology;
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