Table 3.

Principles that should guide the development and study of animal models of acute renal failure

General principles that must be applied to design of animal model	Additional issues that must be considered to optimize the model
Proper randomization of animals	Models should be chosen on the basis of their relevance to the clinical situation, and not merely by the reproducibility of the model
Similar baseline characteristics of the experimental groups	Physiological parameters known to affect kidney function or susceptibility to injury should be controlled for, measured and reported (temperature, blood pressure, fluid status, type of anaesthesia, etc.)
Concurrent appropriate controls	Appropriate preparation of tissue for valid pathological interpretation
Blinded assessment of outcome	Fundamental requirements for a model should include morphology, haemodynamics and function
Consideration and reporting of mortality	Outcomes should be measures at multiple time points
Numbers of animals studied should be appropriate to reproducibility of outcome measure	Noninvasive biomarkers for renal parenchymal cell injury should be developed
	Models should be created that explicitly address comorbidities that are believed to predispose to acute renal failure and outcome in humans
	Experimental observations should be reproduced in other laboratories before they are generally accepted