Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Teramo, Teramo, Italy; Sezione di Fisiologia e Fisiopatologia, Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Imaging e Scienze Cliniche, 'G. d'Annunzio' Università di Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy.
Facoltà di Medicina Veterinaria, Università degli Studi di Teramo, Teramo, Italy.
Semin Cell Dev Biol. 2017 Oct;70:141-153. doi: 10.1016/j.semcdb.2017.08.024. Epub 2017 Aug 11.
The dog is a unique species due to its wide variation among breeds in terms of size, morphology, behaviour and lifespan, coupled with a genetic structure that facilitates the dissection of the genetic architecture that controls these traits. Dogs and humans co-evolved and share recent evolutionary selection processes, such as adaptation to digest starch-rich diets. Many diseases of the dog have a human counterpart, and notably Alzheimer's disease, which is otherwise difficult to model in other organisms. Unlike laboratory animals, companion dogs share the human environment and lifestyle, are exposed to the same pollutants, and are faced with pathogens and infections. Dogs represented a very useful model to understand the relationship between size, insulin-like growth factor-1 genetic variation and lifespan, and have been used to test the effects of dietary restriction and immunotherapy for Alzheimer's disease. Very recently, rapamycin was tested in companion dogs outside the laboratory, and this approach where citizens are involved in research aimed at the benefit of dog welfare might become a game changer in geroscience.
狗是一种独特的物种，因为不同品种之间在体型、形态、行为和寿命方面存在广泛的差异，加上其遗传结构有利于解析控制这些特征的遗传结构。狗和人类共同进化，并共享最近的进化选择过程，例如适应富含淀粉的饮食。狗有许多与人类相似的疾病，特别是阿尔茨海默病，而在其他生物体中很难进行这种疾病的建模。与实验室动物不同，伴侣犬与人类生活在相同的环境中，接触相同的污染物，并面临病原体和感染的威胁。狗是一个非常有用的模型，可以帮助我们理解大小、胰岛素样生长因子-1 遗传变异和寿命之间的关系，并被用于测试饮食限制和免疫疗法对阿尔茨海默病的影响。最近，雷帕霉素在实验室外的伴侣犬中进行了测试，这种让公民参与旨在改善犬类福利的研究的方法，可能会改变老年科学的游戏规则。
