Why do animal models (sometimes) fail to mimic human sepsis?

CT Esmon - Critical care medicine, 2004 - journals.lww.com
Objective: To describe potential mechanisms that may account for the observation that drugs
that work in treating sepsis in animal models often fail in sepsis trials in patients. Data
Source: MEDLINE searches were used to provide the key information. Data Summary: Most
animal studies are performed acutely in young healthy animals, whereas a significant
percentage of the clinical population is elderly with many secondary complications (eg,
diabetes, systemic vascular disease, high blood pressure, immune suppression, cancer) …