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Use of Rabbit Models to Study Atherosclerosis

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Atherosclerosis

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2419))

Abstract

Rabbits are a useful animal model for examining human hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis because they have unique features of lipoprotein metabolism that are similar to those in humans. Feeding rabbits a cholesterol-rich diet is a simple means to induce experimental atherosclerosis. Indeed, cholesterol-fed rabbits were first applied to address the relationship between dietary cholesterol and atherosclerosis more than 100 years ago. However, the methods for investigating atherosclerosis using cholesterol-fed rabbits have not been well formulated. In this chapter, we attempt to provide readers with the essential methods to use cholesterol-fed rabbits in the examination of atherosclerosis from cholesterol diet preparation to lesion analysis. These protocols are compiled for both experienced and young researchers who intend to use rabbits for the investigation of lipoprotein metabolism and atherosclerosis.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Mrs. Kato, Y. for her technical assistance in making pathological specimens. This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI (JP17K08783 and JP15H04718), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81941001 and 81770457), Innovation team programme supported by Guangdong Province (2020KCXTD038), and the JSPS-CAS Bilateral Joint Research Program (JPJSBP 120187204).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine, University of Yamanashi, Chuo, Japan

    Jianglin Fan, Manabu Niimi & Yajie Chen

  2. School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China

    Jianglin Fan

  3. School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China

    Yajie Chen

  4. Admission Center, University of Yamanashi, Kofu, Japan

    Ritsuko Suzuki

  5. Research Institute of Atherosclerotic Disease and Laboratory Animal Center, Xi’an Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Xi’an, China

    Enqi Liu

Authors
  1. Jianglin Fan
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  2. Manabu Niimi
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  3. Yajie Chen
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  4. Ritsuko Suzuki
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  5. Enqi Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jianglin Fan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Dipak Ramji

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© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

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Fan, J., Niimi, M., Chen, Y., Suzuki, R., Liu, E. (2022). Use of Rabbit Models to Study Atherosclerosis. In: Ramji, D. (eds) Atherosclerosis. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2419. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1924-7_25

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1924-7_25

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1923-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1924-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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