The Use of Rodents for the Study of Atherogenesis and Obesity: The Development of Potential Genetic Models

The traditional approach to the study of the consequence of atherosclerosis has been to feed atherogenic diets to large animals. Although, for a number of reasons, it would be desirable to include smaller animals such as rats, their use has not been successful since they seem to tolerate atherogenic diets. However, the work of Amy et al. suggests that the time is appropriate to reconsider the use of small animals, particularly rats, for atherosclerosis research. ^{1 , 2}