An Update on Kawasaki disease (Research): Animal Model

ABSTRACT

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis of unknown etiology in young children. There has been many trials to find out the causes of KD all over the world since Dr. Kawasaki published the first KD cases in Pediatrics (1973). The studies using animal models have been carried out noticablly in Japan and North America, initiated by Dr. Murata (1979) and Dr. Lehman (1985). The medical doctors and scientists have used many animals for their studies, for example, dog, rabbit, swine and mice. Nowadays, mice is the most popular animal model for patho-physiologic research of KD. However, there is no report about animal model research of KD in Korea. I emphasize that we have to start to search the causes of KD through experimental trials. Candida albicans extract and Lactobacillus casei cell wall extract were used to make coronary arteritis in animal models as in case of KD in humans. Recently, there is a good result in developing new drugs (TNF-alpha blockade) for the treatment of KD patients who are resistant to intravenous immunoglobulin and methylprednisolone through animal model research of KD.