The human body is a complex biological system. In order to fully understand this complex system, in vivo (live) analysis is often required. However, the study of human biology in vivo is severely limited due to ethical and technical constraints.

In place of human models, humanized mice have been created to fill this role. These humanized mice have become important tools for the in vivo studies of human cells, tissues, and organs, without putting individuals at risk. Such humanized mouse models may be used to model the human immune system in scenarios of health and pathology. A successful means of creating a humanized mouse is accomplished by the injection of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) into irradiated immunodeficient mice, such as NOD SCID mice. HSCs can be obtained from several different tissues, including human umbilical cord blood (UCB).

We are proud to announce that StemExpress CD34+ cells from human UCB have been used successfully to generate humanized mice. Further information can be read in a publication by Halkias et al. In this article, mice expressing the human HLA transgene were used to examine human T-cell development and behavior in the thymus.

For more information regarding this publication please see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25744551.