Bridging mouse and human anatomies; a knowledge-based approach to comparative anatomy for disease model phenotyping.

The laboratory mouse is the foremost mammalian model used for studying human diseases and is closely anatomically related to humans. Whilst knowledge about human anatomy has been collected throughout the history of mankind, the first comprehensive study of the mouse anatomy was published less than 60 years ago. This has been followed by the more recent publication of several books and resources on mouse anatomy. Nevertheless, to date, our understanding and knowledge of mouse anatomy is far from being at the same level as that of humans. In addition, the alignment between current mouse and human anatomy nomenclatures is far from being as developed as those existing between other species, such as domestic animals and humans. To close this gap, more in depth mouse anatomical research is needed and it will be necessary to extent and refine the current vocabulary of mouse anatomical terms.