Table 1 Commonly used animal models in the study of liver fibrosis
From: Potent natural products and herbal medicines for treating liver fibrosis
Model | Inducing factor | Methodology | Characteristics | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Bridging fibrosis mice | CCl4 | Eight-week-old male C57BL/6 J mice are intraperitoneally injected with 0.5-ml/kg body weight CCl4 (1:50 v/v in corn oil) or vehicle (DMSO in corn oil) three times a week for 4 weeks. Calcipotriol (20-μg/kg body weight) is administrated by oral gavage five times a week, commencing 20 days after the first dose of CCl4 | Convenient, reproducible, well tolerated, most commonly used model | [115] |
Alcohol-induced fibrosis | Alcohol | Alcohol in combination with Western diet is fed to mice intragastrically for 8Â weeks | Aversion for alcohol, rapid metabolism, difficult to control fibrotic stage | [116] |
Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH)-associated fibrosis | Methionine and Choline | Female C57BL/6 mice are fed a methionine-choline-deficient diet or a methionine-choline-supplemented diet for 10Â weeks; the latter control diet is composed of MCD diet supplemented with L-methionine (1.7Â g/kg) and choline bitartrate (14.48Â g/kg) | Similar pathology to human NASH, well characterized, highly reproducible, lack of metabolic context, time consuming | [117] |
Auto-immune fibrosis | Pig serum | Male Wistar rats are given intraperitoneal injections of 0.5-ml normal pig serum twice a week for 10Â weeks with or without concomitant oral administration of PTX (20Â mg/kg) | Mimics immunologic component, but lack of stability and time consuming | [118] |
Biliary fibrosis | Bile duct ligation | Under methoxyflurane anesthesia, the common bile duct is double-ligated using 4–0 silk after a midline abdominal incision. Sham-operated mice have their common bile duct exposed and manipulated but not ligated | Reversible, but highly variable with high mortality rate | [119] |
CRP-TGF-β1, IL-12p35−/− dnTGFβR transgenic-genetic model | Overexpression of TGF-β1 | Standard transgenic method | TGF-β1 susceptibility, pathophysiological significance, but expensive, and early death with limited application | [120] |
Mdr2 (Abcb4−/−) transgenic-genetic model | Hepatobiliary phosphatidyl-choline | Standard transgenic method | Hepatic lesions resembling primary sclerosing cholangitis, convenient but expensive | [121] |