title: Animal models of bronchopulmonary dysplasia. The preterm and term rabbit models.
abstract: Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is an important lung developmental pathophysiology that affects many premature infants each year. Newborn animal models employing both premature and term animals have been used over the years to study various components of BPD. This review describes some of the neonatal rabbit studies that have contributed to the understanding of BPD, including those using term newborn hyperoxia exposure models, premature hyperoxia models, and a term newborn hyperoxia model with recovery in moderate hyperoxia, all designed to emulate aspects of BPD in human infants. Some investigators perturbed these models to include exposure to neonatal infection/inflammation or postnatal malnutrition. The similarities to lung injury in human premature infants include an acute inflammatory response with the production of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors that have been implicated in human disease, abnormal pulmonary function, disordered lung architecture, and alveolar simplification, development of fibrosis, and abnormal vascular growth factor expression. Neonatal rabbit models have the drawback of limited access to reagents as well as the lack of readily available transgenic models but, unlike smaller rodent models, are able to be manipulated easily and are significantly less expensive than larger animal models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York and carl_dangio@urmc.rochester.edu.
authors.forename: Carl T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: D'Angio
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina.
authors.forename: Rita M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Ryan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001997:Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018496:Hyperoxia / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D011247:Pregnancy; D047928:Premature Birth; D011817:Rabbits
keywords: bronchopulmonary dysplasia; hyperoxia; newborn; premature; rabbit