The present invention is related to short-term renal injury models and methods for creating these models. The models and methods can be used for identifying, testing or characterizing candidate molecules with respect to their suitability to treat renal injury. The methods comprise a step of inducing, in a test subject, renal injury by administering subcutaneously a bolus of a renal injury inducer, in a dosage sufficiently high to induce renal injury. Different types of readout for renal injury are provided such as albumin creatinine ratio (ACR) determined in a urine sample taken from the subject, or the development of transcutaneous fluorescence after injection of a fluorescent molecule. Based on the readout the degree of renal injury and/or alteration of GFR can be determined.
