Cardiorenal Associations in Preclinical Modeling: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Area of Science:

• Cardiorenal Medicine
• Translational Research
• Animal Modeling

Background:

• Growing interest in the heart-kidney disease relationship has led to the term cardiorenal syndrome (CRS).
• Existing animal models do not accurately replicate human CRS subtypes.
• A comprehensive review of preclinical studies is needed to assess current cardiorenal association models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and meta-analyze existing animal models of cardiorenal associations.
• To identify which models best replicate human cardiorenal syndrome (CRS) subtypes.
• To evaluate the quality and relevance of preclinical studies on cardiorenal associations.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature search of preclinical studies (1990-2024) on cardiorenal associations in rodents.
• Meta-analysis conducted following PRISMA guidelines.
• Quality assessment of included studies using the SYRCLE tool.

Main Results:

• 251 papers on rodent cardiorenal associations were analyzed, using hemodynamic, echocardiographic, histopathologic, and molecular parameters.
• Various invasive and non-invasive animal approaches exist for modeling cardiorenal syndrome.
• Dahl/SS and ISO-HF models most closely mimicked CRS-2; DOCA-salt and STZ models showed cardiac injury with renal failure progression.

Conclusions:

• Current animal models show promise in replicating aspects of cardiorenal syndrome (CRS).
• Specific "one-hit" models partially mimic certain CRS subtypes.
• Further investigation into the clinical relevance of "two-hit" animal models for cardiorenal associations is warranted.