4. CONCLUSION
In vivo animal models are used to develop new drugs for curing
several ailments. The newer drugs aim to provide alternatives with
negligible or minimum side effects, with ease of availability, and at
affordable prices to treat hepatic cirrhosis. The preclinical assessment
of drugs is based on in vivo animal models specifically rodent or
murine models. Further research is required to develop an ideal in
vivo animal model which can be used for the assessment of drugs and in
which animal recovery can be possible instead of animal sacrifice.
Ex-vivo tissue culture techniques also aid in different stage evaluation
of cirrhosis (either diet-influential or drug-induced liver damage. In
future perspectives, the pathology of the individual patient could be
studied by decellularisation of the liver and hepatic tissue
bioengineering. A direct translation of animal experiments to human
trials may not be possible due to species differences. Although animal
models do not completely recapitulate human disease, animal models are
still useful for answering specific questions regarding disease
pathology, etiology, and testing therapeutic approaches that can be
safely applied to patients. Researchers must choose the appropriate
models for designing experiments because animal models are highly
specific to a particular study. A distinct advantage of experimental
animal models over in vitro cell culture systems is that they
allow researchers to study cell biology through the observation of whole
organs and living organisms. In this way, animal models provide
researchers with unique opportunities to study cellular, molecular and
histological features of hepatoxicity as well as to test novel
therapeutics.