Patent ID: 8263823

Claim:
An immunocompetent mouse model, comprising: an immunodeficient mouse modified to have a reconstituted immune system; and, a xenograft transplanted in the immunodeficient mouse and allowed to establish for an establishment period of at least about 10 days, the xenograft simulating a tissue in a subject in need of a treatment; wherein, the reconstituted immune system is created after the establishment period; the reconstituted immune system is created by administering to the immunodeficient mouse a total number of T cells from a donor transgenic mouse that expresses a transgene encoding a non-xenograft specific T-cell receptor (TCR), wherein the total number of T-cells consists of a preselected number of potentially responsive T-cells, a preselected number of non-responsive T-cells, and a preselected ratio of potentially responsive T-cells to total T-cells; the preselected number of potentially responsive T-cells simulates a number of potentially responsive T-cells in the subject and the ratio of the number of potentially responsive T-cells to total T-cells ranges from about 1:100,000 to about 30:100,000; and wherein rejection of the xenograft is inhibited relative to when the immune system of the immunodeficient mouse is reconstituted with T-cells from a wild type mouse.