Models of Kawasaki disease

Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of systemic vasculitis in early childhood. However, in spite of ongoing clinical investigations, KD could not be fully understood. The development and analyses of animal models will help us understand KD and find new therapeutic strategies for it. Animal models of KD have been developed, and both autoimmune and induction models exist. In this review, we present an overview of these models and discuss future perspectives.

Section editors:Enitan Carrol – Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research, Blantyre and Liverpool, Malawi and UKAndrew Riordan – Birmingham Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham, UK