Animal Models of Hyperlipidemia

The association between atherosclerosis in humans and plasma lipoproteins has led to the development and use of several animal models to help our understanding of familial hypercholesterolemias and atherosclerosis however, the species differences in lipoproteins and their metabolism must be considered when developing models of atherosclerosis and novel therapeutic agents. Dietary manipulations in animals with dominant LDL-C fractions are perhaps more appropriate models for these studies than in animals where HDL is the dominant fraction (Cayen, Givner, and Kraml 

Several hyperlipidemic animal models have been extensively studied these models include the Yoshida and Zucker rats and the heritable hyperlipidemic Watanabe rabbits (WHHL Watanabe 1980 Havel et al. 1982 Lind et al. 1990 Mortensen and Frandsen 1997). More recently, a transgenic mouse has been developed that overexpresses human proteins or underexpresses murine proteins required for cholesterol metabolism. These animal models are not generally used for toxicology studies. 

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Increased level of reactive oxygen speeies (ROS) has been found to induce various physiologieal disorders. Among these health problems, cardiovascular diseases are linked to exeessive generation of ROS that cause oxidative stress. Elevated levels of vascular superoxide anion production have been foimd in animal models of hyperlipidemia [90,91], h5 ertension [92,93], and diabetes [94,95]. Furthermore, clinical studies have established that h ercholesterolemia and diabetes in... 

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