Rodents

Question 1

Rodents make up what percentage of all animals used in research in Canada?

Answer 1

52.3%

Question 2

What types of rodents are used?

Answer 2

• mice
• rats
• guinea pigs
• gerbils
• naked mole rats
• Jerboas
• hamsters
• prairie voles

Question 3

Why use rodents?

Answer 3

• 95% genetic similarity with humans
• good biomedical models (cost effective, short generation times, controlled environments, empirically tractable)
• good pre-clinical models

Question 4

Why NOT use rodents?

Answer 4

• something that is true in rats and mice may not be true in veterinary or human patients
• use of inbred strains does not mimic the real world with genetic heterogeneity
• more basic gene functions can be studied in simpler models
• not appropriate for the biological question

Question 5

guinea pigs

Answer 5

• vitamin C deficiency

- allergies/anaphylaxis

Question 6

naked mole rats

Answer 6

• long lived (28 years)

- low cancer rates

Question 7

mongolian gerbils

Answer 7

• nephropathy (lead toxicity)

- inner ear function

Question 8

jerboas

Answer 8

limb skeletal growth

Question 9

prairie voles

Answer 9

neurobiology of pair bonding

Question 10

rats

Answer 10

• used most in behavioural and cognitive research
• ## also used in toxicology, teratology, oncology, immunology

Question 11

mice

Answer 11

• from 1950s, all purpose mammalian model
• used for just about every normal function and pathology
• cost effective, short generations, large litters, genetic manipulation

Question 12

genetic engineering in mice

Answer 12

• Jackson labs >7000 strains
• almost all are inbred
• knockout/in
• genome editing

Question 13

humanized mice

Answer 13

• insert a copy of a gene into a mouse