A Systematic Review of Animal Models of NAFLD Finds High-Fat, High-Fructose Diets Most Closely Resemble Human NAFLD.

Background And Aims: Animal models of human disease are a key component of translational hepatology research, yet there is no consensus on which model is optimal for NAFLD.

Approach And Results: We generated a database of 3,920 rodent models of NAFLD. Study designs were highly heterogeneous, and therefore, few models had been cited more than once.

Weight loss, insulin resistance, and study design confound results in a meta-analysis of animal models of fatty liver.

The classical drug development pipeline necessitates studies using animal models of human disease to gauge future efficacy in humans, however there is a low conversion rate from success in animals to humans. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a complex chronic disease without any established therapies and a major field of animal research. We performed a meta-analysis with meta-regression of 603 interventional rodent studies (10,364 animals) in NAFLD to assess which variables influenced treatment response.