title: Rabbit as a reproductive model for human health.
abstract: The renaissance of the laboratory rabbit as a reproductive model for human health is closely related to the growing evidence of periconceptional metabolic programming and its determining effects on offspring and adult health. Advantages of rabbit reproduction are the exact timing of fertilization and pregnancy stages, high cell numbers and yield in blastocysts, relatively late implantation at a time when gastrulation is already proceeding, detailed morphologic and molecular knowledge on gastrulation stages, and a hemochorial placenta structured similarly to the human placenta. To understand, for example, the mechanisms of periconceptional programming and its effects on metabolic health in adulthood, these advantages help to elucidate even subtle changes in metabolism and development during the pre- and peri-implantation period and during gastrulation in individual embryos. Gastrulation represents a central turning point in ontogenesis in which a limited number of cells program the development of the three germ layers and, hence, the embryo proper. Newly developed transgenic and molecular tools offer promising chances for further scientific progress to be attained with this reproductive model species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Martin Luther University Faculty of Medicine, Grosse Steinstrasse 52, D-06097 Halle (Saale), Germany. bernd.fischer@medizin.uni-halle.de
authors.forename: Bernd
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: Pascale
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Chavatte-Palmer
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viebahn
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Navarrete Santos
authors.forename: Veronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Duranthon
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001755:Blastocyst / Q000502:physiology; D010064:Embryo Implantation; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005306:Fertilization; D054262:Gastrulation; D006801:Humans; D006949:Hyperlipidemias / Q000150:complications; D023421:Models, Animal; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications; D010920:Placenta / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications; D011254:Pregnancy in Diabetics; D011817:Rabbits / Q000196:embryology; D012098:Reproduction; D060728:Reproductive Health