13170 IUPAC Gold Book - germ-free 10.1351/goldbook.13170 13170 current synonym: gnotobiotic 1 Descriptor applied to animals (usually mice) raised in the complete absence of intestinal and other microorganisms. Such mice have very depleted immune systems, but they can respond normally to any specific antigen, provided it is mixed with a strong adjuvant. immune systems https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/13271 PAC, 2012, 84, 1113. 'IUPAC glossary of terms used in immunotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2012)' on page 1169 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-11-06-03) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13170/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13170/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/13170/plain Citation: 'germ-free' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.13170 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-08-01T08:50:06+00:00