ABSTRACT
The study of obese rats and mice has had a profound impact on our current understanding of how obesity develops and how to combat metabolic diseases. Historically, small animal obesity models with spontaneous monogenic mutations were the initiating moment for the genetic revolution that we are now in, with novel molecular genetic tools and high-throughput gene expression analysis developing constantly. These changes in technology have moved obesity research to acknowledge increasingly complex neuronal circuits that modulate metabolic function and realize that any organ or tissue consists of many cell types with tight interactions that we are just beginning to understand. In this chapter, we highlight key obesity models, emphasizing how technological advances have impacted our knowledge of body weight homeostasis and the new challenges that arise to be solved in future research.
