Animal models in peritoneal dialysis

Over the last decades peritoneal dialysis (PD) has become a successful and widely used treatment for end-stage renal disease patients worldwide. Together with the increasing number of uremic patients successfully treated with PD has grown an interest in physiological, pathophysiological and clinical aspects of this therapeutic method. This article provides an overview of the current status on animal models used in studying the histology and physiology of the peritoneum, as well as the process of peritoneal dialysis itself. We discuss species of experimental animals, methods of peritoneal access, sampling for histology, different techniques and methodologies, and complications of experimental models of PD.