Regulatory toxicology and pharmacology : RTP
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Laboratory animals are used as models for humans in toxicity studies. This use is based on the assumption that extrapolation of biological data from animals to humans is valid. Three methods of extrapolation are considered: the use of body mass equivalence, caloric scaling across species, and the use of the surface area equivalence. ⋯ In recent years the principles of pharmacokinetics have been applied to interspecies scaling; pharmacokinetic short-term studies can be used to determine whether allometric scaling is justified. Considerations, however, should be given to (pharmacokinetic) differences in the same species and to species variability. It would be useful to develop a set of criteria for deciding when the pharmacokinetic model is needed and when simpler models will suffice.