Advances in experimental animal models of hepatocellular carcinoma

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a common malignant tumor with insidious early symptoms, easy metastasis, postoperative recurrence, poor drug efficacy, and a high drug resistance rate when surgery is missed, leading to a low 5‐year survival rate. Research on the pathogenesis and drugs is particularly important for clinical treatment. Animal models are crucial for basic research, which is conducive to studying pathogenesis and drug screening more conveniently and effectively. An appropriate animal model can better reflect disease occurrence and development, and the process of anti‐tumor immune response in the human body. This review summarizes the classification, characteristics, and advances in experimental animal models of HCC to provide a reference for researchers on model selection.

A rat model of cirrhosis with well-differentiated hepatocellular carcinoma induced by thioacetamide

“…Current animal models, however, fall short in accurately representing all stages of liver fibrosis, particularly the transition to the cirrhotic stage [4][5][6] . In addition to not molecularly replicating genetic alterations observed in the clinic, even the widely used diethylnitrosamine-impaired rat (DEN rat) model, though effective in simulating human hepatocarcinogenesis, does not fully replicate the entire progression from liver fibrosis to cirrhosis and eventually to HCC [7][8][9] . To address these limitations, our study aims to develop a rat model induced by thioacetamide (TAA).…”