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Quality of methods reporting in animal models of colitis.
Bramhall M, Flórez-Vargas O, Stevens R, Brass A, Cruickshank S
Inflammatory Bowel Diseases..
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Abstract
Background Current understanding of the onset of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) relies heavily on data derived from animal models of colitis. However, the omission of information concerning the method used makes the interpretation of studies difficult or impossible. We assessed the current quality of methods reporting in four animal models of colitis that are used to inform clinical research into IBD: dextran sulfate sodium (DSS), IL-10-/-, CD45RBhigh T cell transfer and 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene sulfonic acid (TNBS). Methods We performed a systematic review based on PRISMA guidelines, using a PubMed search (2000-2014) to obtain publications that used a microarray to describe gene expression in colitic tissue. Methods reporting quality was scored against a checklist of essential and desirable criteria. Results 58 papers were identified and included in this review (29 DSS, 15 IL-10-/-, 5 T cell transfer and 16 TNBS; some papers use more than one colitis model). A mean of 81.7% (SD = ±7.038%) of criteria were reported across all models. Only one of the 58 papers reported all essential criteria on our checklist. Animal age, gender, housing conditions and mortality/morbidity were all poorly reported. Conclusions Failure to include all essential criteria is a cause for concern; this failure can have large impact on the quality and replicability of published colitis experiments. We recommend adoption of our checklist as a requirement for publication in order to improve the quality, comparability and standardization of colitis studies and will make interpretation and translation of data to human disease more reliable.
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