Résumé
Olfactory dysfunction is one of the most debilitating problem in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) patients, and exact mechanism underlying sinusitis induced olfactory dysfunction was not fully understood. In vivo manipulation for olfactory epithelium and fresh specimen for histopathological analysis are essential for research, but it is nearly impossible to do in human due to inaccessibility of olfactory epithelium and risk for complication. For this reason, several animal models using toxic materials, such as 3-methylindole or bromomethane, have been suggested for mimicking olfactory epithelial damage in CRS, but none of them could truly imitate the event which happens in real patient. Inducible olfactory inflammation (IOI) mouse is a transgenic mouse model selectively producing tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) in sustentacular cell of olfactory epithelium. The production of TNF-alpha can be actively initiated by giving food containing doxycycline to IOI mouse, and inflammation is stopped in the absence of doxycycline. Both toxicity model and transgenic model have their own advantages and disadvantages, therefore appropriate model should be selected for optimal results.