Table 4.

Most frequently used immunocompromised mice for melanoma research.

Mice Identification	Main Features	Melanoma Research Applications	References
Nude (nu/nu)	Athymic Homozygous for mutation Foxn1nu T cell deficient Hairless Cell line engraftment	Pathophysiological mechanisms Novel therapies/therapy resistance Nano-based therapeutic approaches Prognostic biomarkers and molecular imaging	[213,214,215,216,217,218,219]
SCID	Homozygous for the spontaneous mutation Prkdcscid T and B cell deficient Cell line/tumor engraftment	Pathophysiological mechanisms Biodistribution studies	[220,221,222,223]
NOD/SCID	Homozygous for the spontaneous mutation Prkdcscid T and B cell deficient Impaired function of macrophages, DC and NK cells Cell line/tumor engraftment	Pathophysiological mechanisms Gene therapy Adjuvant therapy for brain metastasis Discovery of novel therapeutic targets	[224,225,226,227]
NSG	NOD/SCID IL2rgnull T and B cell deficient Impaired function of macrophages and DC Lack of NK cells Enhanced tumor engraftment	Pathophysiological mechanisms Therapy resistance Novel therapies/combination therapy Chemoprevention Development of imaging probes Biodistribution studies Identification of cell subpopulations	[217,226,228,229,230,231,232,233,234,235]
hu-NSG	NSG with humanized immune system induced by CD34+ HSC or PBMC	Prediction of patients’ response to immunotherapy Imaging of therapeutic targets Therapy resistance	[236,237,238,239]

DC: dendritic cells; HSC: hematopoietic stem cells; hu-NSG: humanized NSG; IL2rg: interleukin-2 receptor gamma chain; NOD/SCID: nonobese diabetic-severe combined immunodeficiency; NK cells: natural killer cells; NSG: NOD/SCID gamma; PBMC: peripheral blood mononuclear cells; Prkdc: protein kinase DNA-activated catalytic polypeptide.