Acute respiratory distress syndrome （ARDS） is an acute respiratory failure caused by diffuse alveolar damage（ DAD） and capillary membrane damage，which is characterized by non-cardiac pulmonary edema and inflammation. Different animal models of lung injury have been used to study the mechanism of lung in-jury，for example，animal models of ARDS such as traumatic acute lung injury，infectious toxic lung injury，chemical lung injury，and mixed lung injury. It is helpful to establish ideally acute lung injury experimental models to explain the mechanism and treatment of human ALI. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the methods， advantages and disadvantages of existing animal models.