Download A useful list of spontaneously arising animal models of obesity and

Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 296: E1450–E1452, 2009;
doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00113.2009.
Letter To The Editor
A useful list of spontaneously arising animal models of obesity and diabetes
Eleazar Shafrir and Ehud Ziv
Department of Biochemistry and Diabetes Research Unit, Hadassah University Hospital and Hebrew University-Hadassah
Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel
TO THE EDITOR:
Address for correspondence: E. Shafrir, Hadassah University Hospital,
Jerusalem 91120, Israel ([email protected]).
E1450
Indiana University (16) from a Zucker rat colony (leprfa) in
which certain individuals exhibited a propensity to diabetes.
The male rat is characterized by hyperinsulinemia and hyperglycemia at 6 –7 wk of age, with glucose reaching levels of 500
mg/dl and insulin levels dropping successively. The female rat
requires a high-fat diet for the expression of diabetes. The ZDF
rat carries a genetic defect in ␤-cell transcription that is
independent of the leptin receptor mutation, causing obesity
and insulin resistance likely to be inherited in the ␤-cell gene.
Goto-Kakizaki rat with impaired ␤-cell mass and function
due to polygenic inheritance. The Goto-Kakizaki rat is a
nonobese substrain of Wistar rat origin with inherited chronic
hyperglycemia. It was selected through a group of eight generation-inbreeding Wistar rats displaying high glucose levels
during a glucose tolerance test. They present “starfish-shaped”
islet abnormalities and pancreatic hormone deficiencies, resembling the polygenic basis of human type 2 diabetes (14).
New Zealand obese mouse. This is a model of obesity,
glucose intolerance, and metabolic syndrome of polygenic
nature. This animal exhibits hepatic and peripheral leptin
insensitivity, insulin resistance, impaired insulin secretion, hypercholesteremia, and hypertension (6). It displays classic
features of obesity, including excessive body weight hyperphagia and reduced energy expenditure. Such obesity is responsible for its impaired glucose metabolism.
JCR:LA-cp rat: exhibiting metabolic syndrome with microand macrovascular disease. The prediabetic state in the JCR:
LA-cp rat is characterized by abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and insulin resistance, and a marked damage to the
vascular system, which is associated with atherosclerosis, vasculopathy, and ischemic end-stage disease (19). It is a unique
model of the obesity/insulin resistance syndrome with cardiovascular implications of polygenic derivation.
SHROB rat: a model of metabolic syndrome. The spontaneously obese SHROB (Koletzky) rat is an overtly nondiabetic
rat with the primary and secondary characteristics associated
with the human metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance. It exhibits a single recessive trait, a nonsense mutation
causing loss of hypothalamic leptin receptors designated as fak
(12), and its insulin-signaling defects were initially reported by
Friedman et al. (7).
Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima fatty rat with metabolic
syndrome and diabetic nephropathy. The Otsuka Long-Evans
Tokushima fatty (OLETF) rat was developed by selective
breeding of a line of Long-Evans rats with diabetic characteristics along with a control line designated as Long-Evans
Tokushima. OLETF rats show hyperphagia with obesity, hyperlipidemia, insulin resistance, and glucosuria, and these rats
are prone to glomerular lesions (11).
Neonatally streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Rats with
diabetes induced by injection of streptozotocin on the day of
birth, or soon thereafter, are used to study the long-term
consequences of reduced ␤-cell mass that resemble those seen
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over the years, we have had the opportunity to
edit books and compendia that characterize diverse animal
models of obesity and diabetes. Most of those animal models
have been either selected through inbreeding or characterized
following spontaneously arising mutations. It is now timely to
provide, in a summary manner, a concise list of such models as
an update and reference for future research. The major defects
are described in the references cited. In some cases, insulin
resistance has been linked to impaired insulin signaling at
various levels, including negative feedback at the level of the
insulin receptor substrate (IRS)-1 (5, 15, 24). However, in most
cases the mechanism of the diabetogenic changes has not been
exhaustively investigated. We hope that this list will guide
studies geared at elucidating specific defects in the signal flow
and how these studies may explain the metabolic failures
leading to the diabetic proneness of the models as well as the
mechanism of the ensuing complications. These animal models
should also enable the discovery of therapeutic modalities with
relevance to human diabetes and should continue to be a useful
tool along with specific target-generated transgenic and knockout animals so amply used to understand metabolism and
energy balance.
Obesity and diabetes in mice with mutations in leptin or
leptin receptor genes. Since the discovery that ob is a mutation in
the leptin structural gene and db is a mutation in the leptin receptor
gene, the nomenclature for these mutations has been changed to
reflect their molecular basis. The Lepob mutation on chromosome 6
was discovered in the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, and
recognized by marked obesity and hyperphagia. This mutation
was subsequently transferred to the B6 inbred strain background. On this genetic background, the mutation produces
juvenile-onset obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and insulin resistance with mild hyperglycemia and a sustained hyperplasia of
the pancreatic ␤-cells.
The Leprdb mutation is a recessive mutation on chromosome
4 that occurred spontaneously in the C57BLKS/J inbred strain.
The obesity/diabetes syndrome is associated with progressively
severe hyperglycemia and correlated with pancreatic cell necrosis and islet atrophy at the end stage. The ob mutation is
predominantly obese and exhibits only mild hyperglycemia.
The current genetic nomenclature for these mice is as follows: LepobJ, common name “obese” gene product; leptin or
leptin mRNA and Leprdb-IJ, common name “diabetic” gene
product leptin receptor or leptin receptor mRNA. Detailed
information on these strains can be found in Chua et al. (2).
Zucker diabetic fatty rat with a leptin receptor defect. The
Zucker diabetic fatty (ZDF) rat exhibits leptin receptor defects.
This type of obesity, although associated with insulin resistance, is unlike common forms of human obesity. The ZDF rat
was developed into a reproducible type 2 diabetic model at
Letter To The Editor
E1451
AJP-Endocrinol Metab • VOL
abnormalities in the autonomic nervous function, ␤-cells, and
expression of uncoupling protein-2 in adipocytes. It is of
interest that this mouse was used to receive the ob and db genes
in the Jackson Laboratory, but it is itself prone to nutritionally
induced diabetes and obesity as well as hypertension (17).
Rats, mice, and dogs subjected to diet-induced obesity. Homeostatic and nonhomeostatic mechanisms exist in animals and
humans regulating energy balance, the function of which can
basically be regarded to protect against starvation. However,
excess food intake leads to tissue deposition, primarily in
adipocytes, resulting in untoward changes in metabolism. Several animals without genetic mutations undergoing diet-induced obesity and developing type 2 diabetes are reviewed by
Coscun et al. (3).
REFERENCES
1. Angeloni SV, Hansen BC. Type 2 diabetes in non-human primates. In:
Insulin Resistance and Insulin Resistance Syndrome, edited by Hansen B
and Shafrir E. London: Taylor & Francis, 2002, p. 89 –124.
2. Chua S Jr, Herberg L, Leiter JH. Obesity/diabetes in mice with
mutations in leptin and leptin receptor genes. In: Animal Models of
Diabetes, Frontiers of Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, 2007, p. 61–102.
3. Coscun T, Chen Y, Sindelar D, Heiman M. Animal models to study
obesity and type 2 diabetes induced by diet. In: Animal Models of
Diabetes, Frontiers of Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, 2007, p. 349 –357.
4. Das Evcimen N, King GL. The role of protein kinase C activation and the
vascular complications of diabetes. Pharmacol Res 55: 498 –510, 2007.
5. Draznin B. Molecular mechanisms of insulin resistance: serine phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate-1 and increased expression of
p85alpha: the two sides of a coin. Diabetes 55: 2392–2397, 2006.
6. Fam BC, Andrikopoulos S. The New Zealand obese mouse: polygenic
model of obesity, glucose intolerance and the metabolic syndrome. In:
Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008, p. 139 –158.
7. Friedman JE, Ishizuka T, Liu S, Farrell CJ, Bedol D, Koletsky RJ,
Kaung HL, Ernsberger P. Reduced insulin receptor signaling in the
obese spontaneously hypertensive Koletsky rat. Am J Physiol Endocrinol
Metab 273: E1014 –E1023, 1997.
8. Hansen BC, Tigno XF. The rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) manifests
all the features of human type 2 diabetes. In: Animal Models of Diabetes,
Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press,
2007, p. 251–270.
9. Ikeda Y, Olsen GS, Ziv E, Hansen LL, Busch AK, Hansen BF, Shafrir
E, Mosthaf-Seedorf L. Cellular mechanism of nutritionally induced
insulin resistance in Psammomys obesus: overexpression of protein kinase
Cepsilon in skeletal muscle precedes the onset of hyperinsulinemia and
hyperglycemia. Diabetes 50: 584 –592, 2001.
10. Kanety H, Moshe S, Shafrir E, Lunenfeld B, Karasik A. Hyperinsulinemia induces a reversible impairment in insulin receptor function
leading to diabetes in the sand rat model of non-insulin-dependent diabetes
mellitus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91: 1853–1857, 1994.
11. Kawano K. OLETF rats: model for the metabolic syndrome and diabetic
neuropathy in humans. In: Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers in
Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007,
p. 209 –221.
12. Koletzky RJ, Veliquette RA, Ernsberger P. The SHROB (Koletzky) rat
as a model for metabolic syndrome. In: Animal Models of Diabetes,
Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press,
2007, p. 185–207.
13. Mack E, Ziv E, Reuveni H, Kalman R, Niv MY, Jörns A, Lenzen S,
Shafrir E. Prevention of insulin resistance and beta-cell loss by abrogating PKCepsilon-induced serine phosphorylation of muscle IRS-1 in Psammomys obesus. Diabetes Metab Res Rev 24: 577–584, 2008.
14. Ostenson CG. The Goto-Kakizaki rat. In: Animal Models of Diabetes,
Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press,
2007, p. 119 –137.
15. Paz K, Hemi R, Leroith R, Karasik A, Elhanany E, Kanety H, Zick Y.
A molecular basis for insulin resistance. Elevated serine/threonine phosphorylation of IRS-1 and IRS-2 inhibits their binding to the juxtamem-
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in human type 2 diabetes. The neonatally streptozotocintreated rats become transiently diabetic for 3 to 5 days after
birth but recover thereafter with altered ␤-cell function and
mass and impaired response of insulin secretion to glucose
administration. They are suitable to evaluate the effect of
various diabetes modulators and complications (18).
Rhesus monkey macaca mulatta with features of type 2
diabetes. The nonhuman primate Macaca mulatta provides the
most human-like model of metabolic disorders in diabetes
representative of other monkey species prone to diabetes. On
an ad libitum diet they gradually become overweight or obese
and progress to classical biochemical and pathophysiological
symptoms of type 2 diabetes (8). Specific defects in this animal
model have been reported by Angeloni and Hansen (1).
Psammomys obesus gerbil with nutritionally induced type 2
diabetes and ␤-cell loss. The Psammomys obesus is a desert
gerbil in which transition from native diet to laboratory rodent
chow induces hyperinsulinemia followed by hyperglycemia.
However, the hyperinsulinemia, which is a compensatory response for the insulin resistance, is not sustained. As a result,
pancreatic insulin is depleted, and the secretion pressure leads
to ␤-cell apoptosis. The reason for insulin resistance is overexpression of protein kinase C (PKC)⑀ isoform, which inhibits
the activity of tyrosine kinase and promotes serine phosphorylation on IRS, thereby inhibiting to tyrosine phosphorylation
and downstream insulin signaling. Peptides from the catalytic
domain of PKC abrogated the serine phosphorylation and
restored insulin signaling and normoglycemia (13). Psammomys is a good model for research of insulin resistance and
testing of antidiabetic drugs (24).
Torii rat with type 2 diabetes and human-like retinopathy
lesions. Type 2 diabetes was discovered among males in an
outbred colony of Sprague-Dawley rats. When sister-brother
repeatedly mated with females of the same strain, the diabetes
was established in males with numerous ocular complications
such as cataract, retinopathy, neovascular glaucoma, and optic
neuropathy (20).
Cohen diabetic rat. Two contrasting rat strains were derived
by selective inbreeding. One strain develops type 2 diabetes
when fed a sucrose-rich, copper-poor diet, and the other does
not. The diabetes is due to ␤-cell dysfunction and reduced
insulin secretion. Cohen rats exhibit retinopathy and nephropathy, reduced fertility, and testicular degeneration. These rats
have been crossed with spontaneously hypertensive rats to
develop a hypertensive strain that presents diffuse glomerulosclerosis and hypertensive myocardial and vascular changes (22).
KK and KKAy mice with type 2 diabetes and obesity. A strain
of native mice originating from the Japanese natural environment habitat was found to lapse into spontaneous diabetes with
moderate obesity and hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia, insulin
resistance, and renal glomerular changes. To strengthen the
characteristics of diabetes in this KK mouse, the (Ay) dominant
obese gene (from the agouti locus of yellow obese mice) was
transferred by repeated crossing. The color of the hair changed
from black to yellow (KKY). The mice genetic nature is
polygenic and differs from the leprdb and leprob groups, whose
diabetic state is induced by gene mutations (21).
C57BL/6J mouse as a model of diet-induced type 2 diabetes
and obesity. BL6 mice are susceptible to obesity-linked diabetes when maintained on a high-fat diet. They also present
Letter To The Editor
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17.
18.
19.
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20.
21.
22.
23.
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Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007, p. 159 –183.
Shinohara M, Masuyama T, Kakehashi A. The spontaneously diabetic
Torii (SDT) rat with retinopathy lesions resembling those of humans. In:
Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers of Research, edited by Shafrir E.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007, p. 311–321.
Taketomi S. KK and KKy mice: models of type 2 diabetes with obesity.
In: Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers of Research, edited by Shafrir E.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007, p. 335–347.
Wechsler-Zangen S, Orlanski E, Zangen DH. Cohen diabetic rat. In:
Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers in Research, edited by Shafrir E.
Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007, p. 323–334.
Zick Y. Role of Ser/Thr kinases in the uncoupling of insulin signaling. Intl
Obes Relat Metab Disord 27, Suppl 3: S56 –S60, 2003.
Ziv E, Kalman R, Shafrir E. Psammomys obesus: nutritionally induced
insulin resitance, diabetes and beta cell loss. In: Animal Models of
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brane region of the insulin receptor and impairs their ability to undergo
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receptor defect diabetic model. In: Animal Models of Diabetes, Frontiers
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Petro AE, Surwit RS. The C57BL/6j mouse as a model of diet-induced
type 2 diabetes and obesity. In: Animal Models of Diabetes, a Primer,
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Portha B, Movassat J, Cusin-Turrel D, Bailbe D, Giroix H, Serradas
P, Dolz M, Kergoat M. Neonatally streptozotocin-induced (n-STZ) diabetic rats: a family of type 2 diabetes models. In: Animal Models of
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metabolic syndrome exhibiting micro- and macromolecular disease. In: