An overview of animal models of diabetic nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy is a microvascular complication in the advanced stage of diabetes. About 20%-40% of patients with diabetes will progress to diabetic nephropathy. And worldwide, diabetic nephropathy has become the leading cause of end-stage renal disease. Animal model is a useful tool to study the pathogenesis and treatment of diabetic nephropathy. Currently, the commonly used diabetic nephropathy models all simulate partial characteristics of human diabetic nephropathy in different degrees of pathophysiology. However, the research on diabetic nephropathy has not achieved considerable progress. The main obstacle is that there is no effective animal model that can fully simulate all the characteristics of human diabetic nephropathy. In this paper, the animal models of diabetic nephropathy were reviewed from the aspects of modeling mechanism, pathophysiology, their advantages and disadvantages. Key words: Diabetic nephropathy; End-stage renal disease; Animal model; Pathophysiology; Advantages; Disadvantages