Assessment of the time course of chronic inflammation in the murine house dust mite model

House dust mite (HDM) allergens are associated with allergic disorders and the use of this clinically relevant antigen is increasing in preclinical animal models. We assessed the chronic inflammatory time course and the anti-inflammatory efficacy of a phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) inhibitor and a corticosteroid in a five week HDM model. It was shown that the HDM model can mimic aspects of chronic allergic asthma including eosinophilic inflammation, airway remodelling and AHR and that this model, in our laboratory, has the potential to test novel compounds for the treatment of allergic disorders.