Models of human endocrine disorders in transgenic rodents.
Although the primary etiology of some endocrine diseases is obvious, for many of them the initiating abnormality is not known. Usually this uncertainty is due to a slow development of significant clinical symptoms, combined with the fact that an abnormality in any one endocrine gland will lead to secondary endocrine abnormalities. The ability to introduce relatively specific and (sometimes) subtle genetic changes into rodents provides an opportunity to test hypotheses concerning primary events in human endocrine disorders. This review deals with the development of transgenic rodent models of the more common, classically defined human endocrine abnormalities.
Stewart
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Department of Endocrine Research, Genentech, South San Francisco, CA 94080-4990, USA.