Therapeutic Approaches on Acquired Lymphedema using a Newly Developed Mouse Limb Model

Acquired lymphedema is the serious side-effect caused by lymphatic disorder through aggressive cancer therapy. Although a high incidence of acquired lymphedema after cancer treatment has been reported in various types of cancer, there is no definite cure to reduce lymphedema, prevent infection, and reduce complications due to the lack of understanding in the biology of lymphedema development. A reliable and reproducible animal model is required to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in lymphedema formation and to study new therapeutic approaches for lymphedema. Therefore, we developed the lymphedema mice showing high reliability and reproducibility through damages of the specific combination including lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels. This novel acquired lymphedema animal could provide the standard model system to study lymphedema therapies.