The brown Norway rats and the kinin system.

In 1979, we found a strain of kininogen-deficient Brown Norway rats. Since then, several studies have used these animals as negative controls of the involvement of the kinin system in physiological and pathophysiological processes. The cause of this deficiency has now been elucidated. This article reviews studies performed with these kininogen-deficient rats. These investigations have mainly focused on the links between the kinin system and the kidneys, hypertension, salivary glands, acute inflammatory reactions, cysteine proteinase inhibition, lymphatic tissues, coagulation, and cardiovascular shock states.