A Review on Complete Freund’s Adjuvant-Induced Arthritic Rat Model: Factors Leading to its Success

Arthritis-induced adjuvant (AIA) is an established animal model reflecting several clinical manifestations of human arthritis. It provides more understanding of pathogenesis and pathways involved in arthritic development and for testing various treatment modalities. Complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) is one of the most known algogenic agents used to develop AIA rodent model. Its wide application increases understanding of CFA effects locally and systemically following adjuvant-containing mycobacterium exposure in-vivo. This study aims to review possible factors involved in producing a successful CFA-induced arthritic rat model. We conducted a review of previous studies to determine critical factors to be emphasized. Since arthritis can be classified as gout, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis, among others, factors that should be assessed include different dosage and volume, injection site, remission, arthritic and animal gender, and strain selections to successfully develop an arthritic rat model.