Animal Models for the Study of Human Disease

Osteomyelitis, or an infection of the bone, remains a major orthopaedic problem without a solution. As these unmet needs stem from our limited knowledge of microbial pathogenesis of chronic osteomyelitis, and the host response required for protective immunity, animal models of bone infection are still being developed after more than a century of research. Moreover, since osteomyelitis research spans the fields of microbiology, immunology, bone biology, biomechanics, orthopaedics and pre-clinical testing of drugs, vaccines and implants, the animal models used for this research must be equally diverse in their size and sophistication. Thus, the goals of this Chapter are to review the clinical problems and the animal models that have been developed to elucidate the etiology of osteomyelitis and evaluate potential interventions. Finally, since bone infections in which biofilm bacteria have colonized the calcified tissue are by definition incurable, we will discuss current biomarker research aimed at understanding in vivo bacterial growth and bone adaptation during chronic osteomyelitis using bioluminescent imaging and micro-computed tomography (μCT) outcome measures, respectively.