The Ebola hemorrhagic fever epidemic spread rapidly in West Africa last year, and the scientific community at that time knew very little about Ebola virus's "perpetrating" methods. In order to study its pathology in depth, German scientists have recently used biotechnology to breed improved mice, which can simulate the process of human infection with Ebola virus and disease.
Scientists at the Heinrich Petter Institute in Hamburg, Germany, reported on March 2 that in order to learn more about the symptoms of Ebola infection, the course of the disease, and to develop treatments, researchers must first have suitable laboratory animals. However, currently commonly used experimental mice are not sensitive to natural Ebola virus, and only artificially modified Ebola virus can be infected, which is not conducive to realistically simulating the course of the disease.
This research institute recently successfully implanted human hematopoietic stem cells into experimental mice. The resulting mice can be infected with natural Ebola virus and exhibit similar viremia and cells that occur after human infection with Ebola virus. Features such as damage, hemorrhage, and high mortality.