Institute of Veterinary Physiology, Vetsuisse Faculty University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Methods Mol Biol. 2020;2128:11-24. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-0385-7_2.
Many animal models that are currently used in appetite and obesity research share at least some main features of human obesity and its comorbidities. Hence, even though no animal model replicates all aspects of "common" human obesity, animal models are imperative in studying the control of energy balance and reasons for its imbalance that may eventually lead to overt obesity. The most frequently used animal models are small rodents that may be based on mutations or manipulations of individual or several genes and on the exposure to obesogenic diets or other manipulations that predispose the animals to gaining or maintaining excessive weight. Characteristics include hyperphagia or changes in energy metabolism and at least in some models the frequent comorbidities of obesity, like hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, or diabetes-like syndromes. Some of the most frequently used animal models of obesity research involve animals with monogenic mutations of the leptin pathway which in fact are useful to study specific mechanistic aspects of eating controls, but typically do not recapitulate "common" obesity in the human population. Hence, this review will mention advantages and disadvantages of respective animal models in order to build a basis for the most appropriate use in biomedical research.
目前用于食欲和肥胖研究的许多动物模型至少具有人类肥胖及其合并症的一些主要特征。因此，即使没有动物模型可以复制“常见”人类肥胖的所有方面，动物模型对于研究能量平衡的控制及其失衡的原因至关重要，这些原因可能最终导致明显的肥胖。最常使用的动物模型是小型啮齿动物，这些啮齿动物可能基于单个或多个基因突变或操作以及暴露于致肥胖饮食或其他易导致动物增加或维持体重的操作。这些特征包括过度进食或能量代谢的变化，并且在至少一些模型中，肥胖的常见合并症，如高血糖、胰岛素抵抗或类似糖尿病的综合征。肥胖研究中最常使用的一些动物模型涉及瘦素途径的单基因突变动物，这些动物实际上可用于研究进食控制的特定机制方面，但通常无法再现人类人群中的“常见”肥胖。因此，本综述将提到各自动物模型的优缺点，以便为在生物医学研究中最适当的使用奠定基础。
