Laboratory rat
Laboratory rats or lab rats are
Origins of rat breeding
In 18th-century
Rat-baiting was a popular sport, which involved filling a pit with rats and timing how long it took for a
In
Use in research
The rat found early use in
The historical importance of this species to scientific research is reflected by the amount of
Scientists have bred many
Much of the
A 1972 study compared
During food rationing due to World War II, British biologists had eaten laboratory rats, creamed.[11][12][13][14][15][16]
Scientists have also spent time studying the thermoregulation of the rat's tail in research. The rat's tail works as a variable heat exchanger. The tail's blood flow allows for thermoregulation to take place because it is under control of sympathetic vasoconstrictor nerves.[17] Vasodilation occurs when the tail temperature increases, causing heat loss. Vasoconstriction occurs when the tail temperature decreases allowing heat to be conserved. Thermoregulation in the rat tail has been used to study metabolism.[18]
Stocks and strains
A "
Wistar rat
The Wistar rat is an outbred albino rat. This breed was developed at the Wistar Institute in 1906 for use in biological and medical research, and is notably the first rat developed to serve as a model organism at a time when laboratories primarily used the house mouse (Mus musculus). More than half of all laboratory rat strains are descended from the original colony established by physiologist Henry Herbert Donaldson, scientific administrator Milton J. Greenman, and genetic researcher/embryologist Helen Dean King.[21][22][23]
The Wistar rat is currently one of the most popular rats used for laboratory research. It is characterized by its wide head, long ears, and a tail length that is always less than its body length. The Sprague Dawley and Long–Evans were developed from Wistars. Wistars are more active than others like Sprague Dawleys. The
Long–Evans rat
The Long–Evans rat is an outbred rat developed by Long and Evans in 1915 by crossbreeding several Wistar females with a wild gray male. Long-Evans rats are white with a black hood, or occasionally white with a brown hood. They are utilized as a multipurpose model organism, frequently in behavioral research, especially in alcohol research. Long-Evans consume alcohol in a much higher rate compared to other strains, thus require less time for these behavioral studies.[citation needed]
Sprague Dawley rat
The Sprague Dawley is an outbred, multipurpose breed of
These rats typically have a longer tail in proportion to their body length than Wistars. They were used in the
Biobreeding rat
The biobreeding rat (a.k.a. the biobreeding diabetes-prone rat or BBDP rat) is an inbred strain that spontaneously develops autoimmune type 1 diabetes. Like NOD mice, biobreeding rats are used as an animal model for Type 1 diabetes. The strain re-capitulates many of the features of human type 1 diabetes and has contributed greatly to the research of T1DM pathogenesis.[31]
Brattleboro rat
The Brattleboro rat is a strain that was developed by
Hairless rat
Hairless laboratory rats provide researchers with valuable data regarding compromised immune systems and genetic kidney diseases. It is estimated that there are over 25 genes that cause
- Rowett nude rats, first identified in 1953 in Scotland, have no thymus. The lack of this organ severely compromises their immune system, with infections of the respiratory tract and eyes increasing the most dramatically.[33]
- Fuzzy rats were identified in 1976 in a Pennsylvania lab. The leading cause of death among fz/fz rats is ultimately a progressive kidney failure that begins around the age of 1 year.[34]
- Shorn rats were bred from Sprague Dawley rats in Connecticut in 1998.[35] They also suffer from severe kidney problems.
Lewis rat
The Lewis rat was developed by Margaret Lewis from Wistar stock in the early 1950s. Characteristics include albino coloring, docile behavior, and low fertility.[36] The Lewis rat suffers from several spontaneous pathologies: first, they can suffer from high incidences of neoplasms, with the rat's lifespan mainly determined by this. The most common are adenomas of the pituitary and adenomas/adenocarcinomas of the adrenal cortex in both sexes, mammary gland tumors and endometrial carcinomas in females, and C-cell adenomas/adenocarcinomas of the thyroid gland and tumors of the haemopoietic system in males. Second, Lewis rats are prone to develop a spontaneous transplantable lymphatic leukaemia. Lastly, when in advanced age, they sometimes develop spontaneous glomerular sclerosis.[36]
Research applications include transplantation research, induced arthritis and inflammation, experimental allergic encephalitis, and STZ-induced diabetes.[37][36]
Royal College of Surgeons rat
The Royal College of Surgeons rat (or RCS rat) is the first known animal with inherited retinal degeneration. Although the genetic defect was not known for many years, it was identified in the year 2000 as a mutation in the gene MERTK. This mutation results in defective retinal pigment epithelium phagocytosis of photoreceptor outer segments.[38]
Shaking rat Kawasaki
The shaking rat Kawasaki (SRK) is an
Zucker rat
The Zucker rat was bred to be a genetic model for research on obesity and hypertension. They are named after Lois M. Zucker and Theodore F. Zucker, pioneer researchers in the study of the genetics of obesity. There are two types of Zucker rat: a lean Zucker rat, denoted as the dominant trait (Fa/Fa) or (Fa/fa); and the characteristically obese (or fatty) Zucker rat or Zucker diabetic fatty rat (ZDF rat), which is actually a recessive trait (fa/fa) of the leptin receptor, capable of weighing up to 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) — more than twice the average weight.[41][42][43]
Obese Zucker rats have high levels of
Knockout rats
A knockout rat (also spelled knock out or knock-out) is a
See also
- Laboratory mouse
- Animal testing on rodents
- Morris water maze
- Rat Genome Database
References
- .
- ^ ISBN 012426400X.
- ^ a b Kuramoto, Takashi (November 2012). "Origin of Albino Laboratory Rats". Bio Resource Newsletter. National Institute of Genetics. Retrieved 20 December 2013.
- ^ John B. Watson (1903) "Psychical development of the white rat", Ph.D. University of Chicago
- PMID 11615648.
- ^ Long, J. A.; Evans H. M. (1922). The oestrous cycle in the rat and its associated phenomena. University of California Press.
- ISBN 0080454321.
- ^ "43rd Annual Pathology of Laboratory Animals Course". Archived from the original on 16 August 2000. Retrieved 15 September 2008.
- Ensembl. Retrieved 17 February 2007.
- .
- ISBN 9780143036555.
creamed rat.
- ISBN 9780842050494.
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- ISBN 9780890893333.
- PMID 12231643.
- PMID 32691633.
- ^ International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice / Rat Genome and Nomenclature Committee (January 2016). "Rules and Guidelines for Nomenclature of Mouse and Rat Strains". Mouse Genome Informatics. Jackson Laboratory. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
- ^ "Outbred Stocks". 15 February 2019.
- ^ Clause, B. T. (February 1998). "The Wistar Institute Archives: Rats (Not Mice) and History". Mendel Newsletter. Archived from the original on 16 December 2006.
- ^ "The Wistar Institute: History". The Wistar Institute. 2007. Archived from the original on 17 October 2008. Retrieved 9 November 2008.
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- ^ "Online Medical Dictionary". 12 December 1998. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2007.
- ^ "Sprague Dawley Outbred Rat". Harlan Laboratories. Archived from the original on 26 October 2012. Retrieved 25 October 2012.
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- ^ a b c "Research Animal Models". CRiver.com. Charles River Laboratories. 2021. Archived from the original on 24 May 2013.
- ^ "Lewis Rat". CRiver.com. Charles River Laboratories. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
- ^
D'Cruz, P. M.; Yasumura, D.; Weir, J.; Matthes, M. T.; Abderrahim, H.; LaVail, M. M.; Vollrath, D. (March 2000). "Mutation of the receptor tyrosine kinase gene Mertk in the retinal dystrophic RCS rat". PMID 10699188.
- S2CID 21608635.
- S2CID 5806299.
- S2CID 109606.
- ^ a b Davis, Amy J. (January 1997). "The Heart of a Zucker". Research PennState. 18 (1). Archived from the original on 22 May 2002. Retrieved 6 December 2008.
- PMID 8769097.
- ^ .
Further reading
- Suckow, Mark A.; Weisbroth, Steven H.; Franklin, Craig L., eds. (2005). The Laboratory Rat (2nd ed.). ISBN 0080454321– via Google Books.
External links
- "Rat Genome", Nature
- Rat Genome Database, Medical College of Wisconsin
- Index of Inbred Rat Strains database, Jacskson Laboratory
- Rat Model Summary database, Knock Out Rat Consortium(archived copy)