Rodent obesity models: an overview.
Animal obesity models differ widely in type and extent of obesity. They are either based on environmental factors (eg. high fat diet induced obesity), spontaneous mutants (i.e. ob/ob mice), genetically engineered animals (eg. mice with melanocortin receptor subtype-4 gene disruption (knock-out)) or mechanical intervention (eg. chemical lesion of the ventromedial hypothalamus). This article reviews available rodent models to study obesity and attempts to highlight the greatest utility for each model.
Tschöp
M
M
Endocrine Division, Lilly Research Laboratories, Eli Lilly and Company Corporate Center, Indianapolis, Indiana 46285, USA. tschoep@gmx.de
Heiman
M L
ML
D000818:Animals; D001698:Biomedical Engineering; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004777:Environment; D006706:Homeostasis; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009154:Mutation; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051381:Rats