Models of Hypophosphatemia and Phosphate Depletion

Abstract

One objective of scientific investigation in medicine is to elucidate the specific cause and mechanisms of tissue injury or dysfunction in a specific disease state. Since most of us attending this meeting are concerned with human disease and physiology, and since animals often respond differently to disease-producing factors than man, it follows that human subjects or their materials should be utilized for scientific investigation whenever possible. When this is not possible the investigator must resort to either experimental animals, their components or in vitro simulators in hope of providing an inferential solution to the human problem. Of equal importance, in the search for appropriate models of human disease, zealous efforts should be made to select an animal that responds to interventions or injurious agents in a manner similar to that of man.