Nath Digbijoy, Barbhuiya Pervej Alom, Sen Saikat, Pathak Manash Pratim
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Assam Down Town University, Sankar Madhab Path, Gandhi Nagar, Panikhaiti, Guwahati, Assam, 781026, India.
Centre for Research on Ethnomedicine, Assam Down Town University, Sankar Madhab Path, Gandhi Nagar, Panikhaiti, Guwahati, Assam, 781026, India.
Endocr Metab Immune Disord Drug Targets. 2025;25(6):458-478. doi: 10.2174/0118715303312932240801073903.
Obesity is becoming a global pandemic with pandemic proportions. According to the WHO estimates, there were over 1.9 billion overweight individuals and over 650 million obese adults in the globe in 2016. In recent years, scientists have encountered difficulties in choosing acceptable animal models, leading to a multitude of contradicting aspects and incorrect outcomes. This review comprehensively evaluates different screening models of obesity and obesity-associated comorbidities to reveal the advantages and disadvantages/limitations of each model while also mentioning the time duration each model requires to induce obesity.
For this review, the authors have gone through a vast number of article sources from different scientific databases, such as Google Scholar, Web of Science, Medline, and PubMed.
In-vivo models used to represent a variety of obesity-inducing processes, such as diet-induced, drug-induced, surgical, chemical, stress-induced, and genetic models, are discussed. Animal cell models are examined with an emphasis on their use in understanding the molecular causes of obesity, for which we discussed in depth the important cell lines, including 3T3-L1, OP9, 3T3-F442A, and C3H10T1/2. Screening models of obesity-associated co-morbidities like diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disorders, cancer, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were discussed, which provided light on the complex interactions between obesity and numerous health problems.
Mimicking obesity in an animal model reflects multifactorial aspects is a matter of challenge. Future studies could address the ethical issues surrounding the use of animals in obesity research as well as investigate newly developed models, such as non-mammalian models. In conclusion, improving our knowledge and management of obesity and related health problems will require ongoing assessment and improvement of study models.
肥胖正成为一种具有流行规模的全球大流行病。根据世界卫生组织的估计，2016年全球有超过19亿超重个体和超过6.5亿肥胖成年人。近年来，科学家们在选择可接受的动物模型时遇到了困难，导致出现了许多相互矛盾的方面和错误的结果。本综述全面评估了不同的肥胖及肥胖相关合并症筛查模型，以揭示每个模型的优缺点/局限性，同时还提及了每个模型诱导肥胖所需的时间。
在本次综述中，作者查阅了来自不同科学数据库的大量文章来源，如谷歌学术、科学网、医学在线和PubMed。
讨论了用于代表各种肥胖诱导过程的体内模型，如饮食诱导、药物诱导、手术、化学、应激诱导和遗传模型。对动物细胞模型进行了研究，重点是它们在理解肥胖分子原因方面的应用，为此我们深入讨论了重要的细胞系，包括3T3-L1、OP9、3T3-F442A和C3H10T1/2。讨论了肥胖相关合并症如糖尿病、哮喘、心血管疾病、癌症和多囊卵巢综合征（PCOS）的筛查模型，这些模型揭示了肥胖与众多健康问题之间的复杂相互作用。
在动物模型中模拟肥胖反映多因素方面是一项具有挑战性的任务。未来的研究可以解决肥胖研究中使用动物所涉及的伦理问题，并研究新开发的模型，如非哺乳动物模型。总之，提高我们对肥胖及相关健康问题的认识和管理将需要对研究模型进行持续评估和改进。
