Diet-Induced Rabbit Models for the Study of Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Obesity and metabolic syndrome (MetS) have become a growing problem for public health and clinical practice, given their increased prevalence due to the rise of sedentary lifestyles and excessive caloric intake from processed food rich in fat and sugar. There are several definitions of MetS, but most of them describe it as a cluster of cardiovascular and metabolic alterations such as abdominal obesity, reduced high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, elevated triglycerides, glucose intolerance, and hypertension. Diagnosis requires three out of these five criteria to be present. Despite the increasing prevalence of MetS, the understanding of its pathophysiology and relationship with disease is still limited. Indeed, the pathological consequences of MetS components have been reported individually, but investigations that have studied the effect of the combination of MeS components on organ pathological remodeling are almost nonexistent. On the other hand, animal models are a powerful tool in understanding the mechanisms that underlie pathological processes such as MetS. In the first part of the review, we will briefly overview the advantages, disadvantages and pathological manifestations of MetS in porcine, canine, rodent, and rabbit diet-induced experimental models. Then, we will focus on the different dietary regimes that have been used in rabbits to induce MetS by means of high-fat, cholesterol, sucrose or fructose-enriched diets and their effects on physiological systems and organ remodeling. Finally, we will discuss the use of dietary regimes in different transgenic strains and special rabbit breeds.

Association of long-term consumption of repeatedly heated mix vegetable oils in different doses and hepatic toxicity through fat accumulation

“…To study the effect of differently treated vegetable oils on lipid metabolism and oxidative stress, the selection of experimental animal models is very critical to conduct basic research and develop a study tool. In this respect, to study human fat metabolism the rabbit has become the most appropriate animal model because of rabbits' unique features of lipid metabolism similar to humans [34][35][36].…”

Modulation of the Inflammatory Process by Hypercholesterolemia in Osteoarthritis

“…As mentioned before, rabbits have been claimed as the best animal model for lipid-related research (18). In contrast to mice and rats, rabbits have a lipoprotein metabolism similar to humans, where the main cholesterol pool is from a hepatic origin and LDL is the predominant plasma lipoprotein (18). The apoenzyme (Apo) profile and the hepatic LDL receptors are also similar in rabbits and humans (17,41).…”

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