title: Animal models of coronary heart disease.
abstract: Cardiovascular disease, predominantly coronary heart disease and stroke, leads to high morbidity and mortality not only in developed worlds but also in underdeveloped regions. The dominant pathologic foundation for cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis and as to coronary heart disease, coronary atherosclerosis and resulting lumen stenosis, even total occlusions. In translational research, several animals, such as mice, rabbits and pigs, have been used as disease models of human atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disorders. However, coronary lesions are either naturally rare or hard to be fast induced in these models, hence, coronary heart disease induction mostly relies on surgical or pharmaceutical interventions with no or limited primary coronary lesions, thus unrepresentative of human coronary heart disease progression and pathology. In this review, we will describe the progress of animal models of coronary heart disease following either spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary lesions.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Jiawei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, China.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, China. georgeliu@bjmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: animal models; coronary arteriosclerosis; coronary atherosclerosis; coronary heart disease