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Sokolowski K, Turner PV, Lewis E, Wange RL, Fortin MC. Exploring rabbit as a nonrodent species for general toxicology studies. Toxicol Sci 2024; 199:29-39. [PMID: 38374304 DOI: 10.1093/toxsci/kfae022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/21/2024] Open
Abstract
To avoid adverse events in humans, toxicity studies in nonclinical species have been the foundation of safety evaluation in the pharmaceutical industry. However, it is recognized that working with animals in research is a privilege, and conscientious use should always respect the 3Rs: replacement, reduction, and refinement. In the wake of the shortages in routine nonrodent species and considering that nonanimal methods are not yet sufficiently mature, the value of the rabbit as a nonrodent species is worth exploring. Historically used in vaccine, cosmetic, and medical device testing, the rabbit is seldom used today as a second species in pharmaceutical development, except for embryo-fetal development studies, ophthalmic therapeutics, some medical devices and implants, and vaccines. Although several factors affect the decision of species selection, including pharmacological relevance, pharmacokinetics, and ADME considerations, there are no perfect animal models. In this forum article, we bring together experts from veterinary medicine, industry, contract research organizations, and government to explore the pros and cons, residual concerns, and data gaps regarding the use of the rabbit for general toxicity testing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katie Sokolowski
- Safety Assessment, Development Sciences, Denali Therapeutics Inc, South San Francisco, California 94080, USA
| | - Patricia V Turner
- Global Animal Welfare & Training, Charles River Laboratories, Wilmington, Massachusetts 01887, USA
- Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada
| | - Elise Lewis
- Safety Assessment, Charles River Laboratories, Horsham, Pennsylvania 19044, USA
| | - Ronald L Wange
- Office of New Drugs, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, US Food and Drug Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland 20993, USA
| | - Marie C Fortin
- Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
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Summers KM. Genetic models of fibrillinopathies. Genetics 2024; 226:iyad189. [PMID: 37972149 PMCID: PMC11021029 DOI: 10.1093/genetics/iyad189] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2023] [Accepted: 10/16/2023] [Indexed: 11/19/2023] Open
Abstract
The fibrillinopathies represent a group of diseases in which the 10-12 nm extracellular microfibrils are disrupted by genetic variants in one of the genes encoding fibrillin molecules, large glycoproteins of the extracellular matrix. The best-known fibrillinopathy is Marfan syndrome, an autosomal dominant condition affecting the cardiovascular, ocular, skeletal, and other systems, with a prevalence of around 1 in 3,000 across all ethnic groups. It is caused by variants of the FBN1 gene, encoding fibrillin-1, which interacts with elastin to provide strength and elasticity to connective tissues. A number of mouse models have been created in an attempt to replicate the human phenotype, although all have limitations. There are also natural bovine models and engineered models in pig and rabbit. Variants in FBN2 encoding fibrillin-2 cause congenital contractural arachnodactyly and mouse models for this condition have also been produced. In most animals, including birds, reptiles, and amphibians, there is a third fibrillin, fibrillin-3 (FBN3 gene) for which the creation of models has been difficult as the gene is degenerate and nonfunctional in mice and rats. Other eukaryotes such as the nematode C. elegans and zebrafish D. rerio have a gene with some homology to fibrillins and models have been used to discover more about the function of this family of proteins. This review looks at the phenotype, inheritance, and relevance of the various animal models for the different fibrillinopathies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kim M Summers
- Mater Research Institute-University of Queensland, Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba QLD 4102, Australia
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Honda A. Gene Targeting in Rabbits: Single-Step Generation of Knockout Rabbits by Microinjection of CRISPR/Cas9 Plasmids. Methods Mol Biol 2023; 2637:255-267. [PMID: 36773153 DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-3016-7_20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/12/2023]
Abstract
The development of genome editing technology has allowed gene disruptions to be achieved in various animal species and has been beneficial to many mammals. Gene disruption using pluripotent stem cells is difficult to achieve in rabbits, but thanks to advances in genome editing technology, a number of gene disruptions have been conducted. This chapter describes a simple and easy method for carrying out gene disruptions in rabbits using CRISPR/Cas9 in which the gene to be disrupted is marked, the presence or absence of off-target candidates is checked, and a plasmid allowing simultaneous expression of Cas9 and sgRNA is constructed. Next, the cleaving activity of candidate sequences is investigated, and assessments are carried out to determine whether the target sequences can be cut. Female rabbits subjected to superovulation treatment are mated with male rabbits and fertilized eggs are collected, and then pronuclear injection of plasmid DNA is performed. The next day, the two-cell stage embryos are transplanted into a pseudopregnant rabbits, and offspring are born within approximately 29-30 days. The genomic DNA of the offspring is then examined to check what type of genetic modifications has occurred. With the advent of CRISPR/Cas9, the accessibility of gene disruptions in rabbits has improved remarkably. This chapter summarizes specifically how to carry out gene disruptions in rabbits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arata Honda
- Animal Resource Laboratory, Center for Development of Advanced Medical Technology, Jichi Medical University School of Medicine, Yakushiji, Shimotsuke-shi, Tochigi, Japan.
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Fan J, Wang Y, Chen YE. Genetically Modified Rabbits for Cardiovascular Research. Front Genet 2021; 12:614379. [PMID: 33603774 PMCID: PMC7885269 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.614379] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2020] [Accepted: 01/04/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Rabbits are one of the most used experimental animals for investigating the mechanisms of human cardiovascular disease and lipid metabolism because they are phylogenetically closer to human than rodents (mice and rats). Cholesterol-fed wild-type rabbits were first used to study human atherosclerosis more than 100 years ago and are still playing an important role in cardiovascular research. Furthermore, transgenic rabbits generated by pronuclear microinjection provided another means to investigate many gene functions associated with human disease. Because of the lack of both rabbit embryonic stem cells and the genome information, for a long time, it has been a dream for scientists to obtain knockout rabbits generated by homologous recombination-based genomic manipulation as in mice. This obstacle has greatly hampered using genetically modified rabbits to disclose the molecular mechanisms of many human diseases. The advent of genome editing technologies has dramatically extended the applications of experimental animals including rabbits. In this review, we will update genetically modified rabbits, including transgenic, knock-out, and knock-in rabbits during the past decades regarding their use in cardiovascular research and point out the perspectives in future.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jianglin Fan
- Department of Pathology, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China.,Department of Molecular Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Research, University of Yamanashi, Yamanashi, Japan.,School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Wuyi University, Jiangmen, China
| | - Yanli Wang
- Department of Pathology, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China
| | - Y Eugene Chen
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
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Yang D, Liang X, Pallas B, Hoenerhoff M, Ren Z, Han R, Zhang J, Chen YE, Jin JP, Sun F, Xu J. Production of CFTR-ΔF508 Rabbits. Front Genet 2021; 11:627666. [PMID: 33552140 PMCID: PMC7862758 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.627666] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2020] [Accepted: 12/29/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a lethal autosomal recessive disease caused by mutations in the gene encoding the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). The most common mutation is the deletion of phenylalanine residue at position 508 (ΔF508). Here we report the production of CFTR-ΔF508 rabbits by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing. After microinjection and embryo transfer, 77 kits were born, of which five carried the ΔF508 mutation. To confirm the germline transmission, one male ΔF508 founder was bred with two wild-type females and produced 16 F1 generation kits, of which six are heterozygous ΔF508/WT animals. Our work adds CFTR-ΔF508 rabbits to the toolbox of CF animal models for biomedical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongshan Yang
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Xiubin Liang
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Brooke Pallas
- Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Mark Hoenerhoff
- In Vivo Animal Core, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Zhuoying Ren
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Renzhi Han
- Division of Cardiac Surgery, Department of Surgery, Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, Biophysics Graduate Program, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Jifeng Zhang
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Y Eugene Chen
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
| | - Jian-Ping Jin
- Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States
| | - Fei Sun
- Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, United States
| | - Jie Xu
- Center for Advanced Models for Translational Sciences and Therapeutics, University of Michigan Medical Center, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, United States
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Abstract
Transgenic rabbits have contributed to the progress of biomedical science as human disease models because of their unique features, such as the lipid metabolism system similar to humans and medium body size that facilitates handling and experimental manipulation. In fact, many useful transgenic rabbits have been generated and used in research fields such as lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis, cardiac failure, immunology, and oncogenesis. However, there have been long-term problems, namely that the transgenic efficiency when using pronuclear microinjection is low compared with transgenic mice and production of knockout rabbits is impossible owing to the lack of embryonic stem cells for gene targeting in rabbits. Despite these limitations, the emergence of novel genome editing technology has changed the production of genetically modified animals including the rabbit. We are finally able to produce both transgenic and knockout rabbit models to analyze gain- and loss-of-functions of specific genes. It is expected that the use of genetically modified rabbits will extend to various research fields. In this review, we describe the unique features of rabbits as laboratory animals, the current status of their development and use, and future perspectives of transgenic rabbit models for human diseases.
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