Animal models--what they can tell us about vascular calcification in CKD.

The development of cardiovascular calcifications in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients involves multiple risk factors with additive effects. However, a number of questions concerning cardiovascular calcifications in CKD patients remain unanswered at present due to lack of clinical data or due to the impossibility of conducting clinical trials to investigate these issues. In this review, we discuss how animal models could help us understand better the pathophysiology and management of calcifying cardiovascular complications associated with CKD.