REVIEW article
Front. Cardiovasc. Med.
Sec. Cardiac Rhythmology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2025.1617652
Animal and cellular models of atrial fibrillation: a review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China
- 2Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
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Modeling atrial fibrillation (AF) is crucial for investigating its pathogenesis and developing new therapeutic strategies. To better explore the mechanisms underlying AF and promote the progress of basic research, it is particularly important to develop accurate animal models that closely simulate the progression of clinical disease. This review summarizes the methods and evaluation criteria for establishing animal and cellular AF models over the past decade, highlighting the advantages and limitations of various models to provide a reference for basic research and treatment of AF. Current experimental animals are primarily categorized into small animals (mice, rats, rabbits), large animals (dogs, pigs, sheep, horses), and model organisms (zebrafish), with modeling methods including electrophysiological induction, chemical induction, trauma induction, and genetic editing. Cellular models commonly use primary cultured cardiomyocytes, the HL-1 cell line, hiPSC-CMs, and H9c2 cells as subjects of study. However, due to the lack of standardized modeling protocols, researchers evaluate AF models based on electrophysiological properties, atrial functional metrics, and biomarkers. Three-dimensional engineered tissues and artificial intelligence, as emerging fields, play an important role in the diagnosis, treatment, and prognostic monitoring of AF. This paper not only summarizes the current progress in AF model research but also points out the deficiencies of existing models, offering guidance for future research directions.
Keywords: Atrial Fibrillation, animal model, Cellular model, biomarkers, review
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Wu, Chen, Chen, Maka, Gao, Wang, Li and Gong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xize Wu, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China
Lihong Gong, Affiliated Hospital of Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.