Scleroderma or systemic sclerosis is a rare connective tissue disorder with complex pathogenesis. Scleroderma can be divided in localized scleroderma primarily affecting the skin and subcutaneous tissue, whereas systemic sclerosis is associated with systemic manifestations and involvement of multiple organ systems, including kidney, lung, heart, gastrointestinal tract and more.

To support the development of antifibrotic therapies that will be effective in the treatment of scleroderma we have developed and standardized the bleomycin induced scleroderma animal model,  that reproduces the pathology manifestations and is widely use in preclinical research.

The scleroderma model induced by mini osmotic pump released bleomycin  integrates comprehensive histopathological and molecular readouts of fibrosis and inflammation, providing a well-established and highly translational in vivo preclinical platform for evaluating novel therapeutics targeting fibrosis.