Mouse Models of Skin Fibrosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare systemic autoimmune disease associated with a high mortality. The first histopathological hallmarks are vasculopathy and inflammation, followed by fibrosis of the skin and internal organs. The molecular and cellular mechanisms are incompletely understood. Rodent models provide important insights into the pathogenesis of SSc and are a mainstay for the development of novel targeted therapies. Here we describe the mechanistic insights of inducible and genetic models, and also discuss in detail the limitations and pitfalls of the most frequently used SSc mouse models. We also describe protocols for running the established bleomycin-induced scleroderma skin fibrosis model.