Department of Animal Sciences, Auburn University, AL, Auburn, 210 Upchurch Hall, 36854, USA.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2022;1354:335-343. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-85686-1_17.
Much of biomedical oriented research is conducted with animal models. Over the years, rodents (primarily rats and mice) have emerged as the preferred species for basic biochemistry, cell biology, physiology and nutrition studies. In the past, dogs have been used for the evaluation of dietary protein quality and other aspects of animal nitrogen metabolism and physiology, cardiovascular and endocrine research. At an increasing rate, pigs have also been used as a model species in biomedical research. Pigs are readily available in various mature sizes and genotypic/phenotypic traits, and there are many anatomic, nutritional and physiologic similarities between human beings and pigs. Many notable reviews summarizing the role of pigs in biomedical studies have already been published and these are cited below. The present review focuses on characteristics that make pigs an excellent biomedical animal model in particular in obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular research. To procure an animal model for obesity, irrespective of species used, these animals must be fed a dense caloric diet (high fat) to achieve an experimental working model within a reasonable period. This review also focuses on a putative role of gastrointestinal microbiota in obesity as obese animals exhibit a shift in the distribution of gastrointestinal microbial phyla from lean animals. But to date such results have not pinpointed a treatable cause for obesity. Sometimes, the choice of sampling sites for microbial assessment in many reports can be questioned as the microbial content and phyla distribution in easily collected fecal samples may differ from those obtained directly from the small intestine and upper colon. While pigs are still utilized in many countries for medical surgery practice, this has been discontinued in US medical schools.
许多面向生物医学的研究都是使用动物模型进行的。多年来，啮齿动物（主要是大鼠和小鼠）已成为基础生物化学、细胞生物学、生理学和营养学研究的首选物种。过去，狗曾被用于评估膳食蛋白质质量以及动物氮代谢和生理学、心血管和内分泌研究的其他方面。越来越多的猪也被用作生物医学研究的模型物种。猪有各种成熟的体型和基因型/表型特征，并且人类和猪之间有许多解剖学、营养和生理学上的相似之处。已经有许多总结猪在生物医学研究中作用的著名综述发表，下面引用了这些综述。本综述重点介绍了使猪成为出色的生物医学动物模型的特点，特别是在肥胖、糖尿病和心血管研究方面。为了获得肥胖的动物模型，无论使用哪种物种，这些动物都必须喂食高热量的高热量饮食（高脂肪），以便在合理的时间内获得实验工作模型。本综述还重点介绍了胃肠道微生物群在肥胖中的潜在作用，因为肥胖动物表现出胃肠道微生物门分布从瘦动物的分布发生变化。但迄今为止，这些结果并未确定肥胖的可治疗原因。在许多报告中，有时对微生物评估的采样部位的选择也值得质疑，因为在容易收集的粪便样本中获得的微生物含量和菌群分布可能与直接从小肠和上部结肠获得的微生物含量和菌群分布不同。虽然许多国家仍在将猪用于医疗手术实践，但美国医学院已停止使用。
