The Lieber-DeCarli Diet-A Flagship Model for Experimental Alcoholic Liver Disease.

Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is the most common chronic liver disease in the Western world, and it persists at a high prevalence. Understanding the pathophysiology and successful treatment for ALD is closely associated with the suitability of the animal model, which fully reflects all aspects of the pathogenesis and typical histological findings. This study reviews one of the most widely used experimental models of ALD in rodents-the Lieber-DeCarli (LDC) liquid diet. It is an easy, accurate, reliable, and inexpensive model to study the pathogenesis of early stages of ALD. Here, we discuss the historical background and provide an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the classical LDC as well as modified "second-hit" models. We also provide a comprehensive protocol for the application of the LDC diet to perform it successfully, reliably, and reproducibly in mice.