Table 1.

Scoring Table of Different Experimental Fibrosis Models

	Costs	Time Dependency	Cell–Cell Interactions	Possibility to Evaluate Drugs	Overall Translational Capacity
Cultured fibroblasts	+	+++	-	++	+
Ex vivo model (Kruithof)	++	++++	++	+++	+++
In vivo models (animals)	++++	++++	++++	+++	++++
Human biopsies	+++	++	++++	+++	NA

Various aspects (Costs, Possibility to Study Time Dependency, Possibility to Study Cell–Cell Interactions, Possibility to Evaluate Effects of Drugs, and Overall Translational Capacity) of 4 experimental systems to assess cardiac fibrosis: Cultured (Cardiac) Fibroblasts, the Ex Vivo Model by Kruithof et al,⁵ Animal Models, and Human Cardiac Biopsies. (-): not possible; (+) minor; (++) moderate; (+++) substantial; (++++) very strong.

NA = not applicable.