Selection and development of preclinical models in fracture-healing research.

Animal fracture models have been extensively applied to preclinical research as a platform to identify and characterize normal and abnormal physiological processes and to develop specific maneuvers that alter the biology and biomechanics being examined. The choice of animal model employed in a study bears a direct relationship to the specific intervention being analyzed. The animal models employed should be described clearly, control-group data should be established, and reproducibility should be defined from experiment to experiment and from institution to institution so that quantitative and qualitative outcomes can be reliably compared and contrasted to other related studies.