The carbon tetrachloride model in mice.

Recently, the need for more standardized operation procedures in experimental liver fibrosis research was suggested due to dramatic changes in European animal welfare rules. Here, we present a short series of standard operation procedures (SOPs) summarizing the most relevant and widely accepted experimental models for the induction of liver injury leading to liver fibrosis. The described procedures are based on the long-term experience of the Collaborative Research Centre 'Organ Fibrosis: From Mechanisms of Injury to Modulation of Disease' (http://www.sfbtrr57.rwth-aachen.de/), which is supported by the German Research Foundation (SFB/TRR57). These SOPs will help to improve standardization of fibrosis models and to increase the comparability of data between different laboratories with the aim of reducing animal experimentation according to the principle that was proposed in 1959 by Russell and Burch as an ethical framework for conducting scientific experiments with animals, namely the replacement, refinement and reduction (3R) principle. In the first section we focus on the carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) model in mice, which is the toxic model of liver fibrosis induction most commonly used worldwide.