Table 1.

Major murine models of HB.

Model	Attributes	Deficits	Primary References
Subcutaneous model	Tumors easily implanted and monitored	Model does not accurately recapitulate tumor microenvironment and vascularization	[15,17]
Splenic injection model	First published model of intrahepatic tumorigenesis	Tumors grow as small, multifocal nodules, which makes quantifying tumor burden difficult	[8,17]
Intrahepatic model	Tumors recapitulate liver microenvironment and show expression of genes and proteins indicative of standard disease	Use of cell lines grown extensively in vitro	[18,19]
Subcutaneous PDX model	Fresh patient samples more closely resemble primary disease	Model does not accurately recapitulate tumor microenvironment and vascularization	[20,21,22,23]
Intrahepatic PDX model	Fresh patient samples closely resemble primary disease and tumors recapitulate liver microenvironment	Limited access to patient samples for model generation	[24]
LIN28B GEM model	Use of immunocompetent animals and specific exploration of LIN28B	Only models LIN28B overexpressing tumors	[25]
myc/CTNNB1 GEM model	Use of immunocompetent animals and specific exploration of myc and CTNNB1	Less than half of animals develop tumors and most do not survive long after birth for further studies	[26]
Prom1 Cre-recombination GEM model	Facilitates studies of tumor initiation during development	Not a liver-specific GEM model	[27]
CTNNB1/Yap-1 hydrodynamic tail vein injection/Sleeping Beauty transposon model	Manipulation of genes of interest without the work required for generation of a GEM model	Most animals develop nodules that eventually encompass the entire liver with tumor, which may make quantifying tumor burden difficult	[28]