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Updated: Mar 30, 2026
An Intact Pericardium Ischemic Rodent Model
Published on: September 2, 2021
Animal models of coronary heart disease
Jiawei Liao1, Wei Huang1, George Liu2
1Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Key Laboratory of Molecular Cardiovascular Sciences, Ministry of Education, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, China.
Insights
This review examines animal models for studying coronary heart disease (CHD). It highlights limitations in current models and discusses progress in developing spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary atherosclerosis models for better human CHD research.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Research
- Translational Medicine
- Animal Models
Background:
- Cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, causes significant global morbidity and mortality.
- Atherosclerosis, characterized by lumen stenosis or occlusion, is the primary pathology underlying CHD.
- Existing animal models often lack spontaneous or easily inducible coronary lesions, limiting their representativeness of human CHD progression.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review advancements in animal models for coronary heart disease research.
- To address the limitations of current models in replicating human coronary atherosclerosis.
- To explore models with spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary lesions.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of existing animal models for cardiovascular disorders.
- Analysis of spontaneous coronary lesion development in animal models.
- Evaluation of diet-accelerated induction of coronary atherosclerosis in animal models.
Main Results:
- Current animal models often require surgical or pharmaceutical interventions for CHD induction, which may not accurately reflect natural disease progression.
- Spontaneous coronary lesions are rare or difficult to induce rapidly in many common models.
- Progress has been made in developing models that exhibit spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary lesions, offering improved relevance.
Conclusions:
- Developing more representative animal models is crucial for advancing coronary heart disease research.
- Models with spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary lesions show promise for better understanding human CHD pathology and progression.
- Further research into these advanced models can improve translational outcomes for cardiovascular disease therapies.
Abstract:
Cardiovascular disease, predominantly coronary heart disease and stroke, leads to high morbidity and mortality not only in developed worlds but also in underdeveloped regions. The dominant pathologic foundation for cardiovascular disease is atherosclerosis and as to coronary heart disease, coronary atherosclerosis and resulting lumen stenosis, even total occlusions. In translational research, several animals, such as mice, rabbits and pigs, have been used as disease models of human atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular disorders. However, coronary lesions are either naturally rare or hard to be fast induced in these models, hence, coronary heart disease induction mostly relies on surgical or pharmaceutical interventions with no or limited primary coronary lesions, thus unrepresentative of human coronary heart disease progression and pathology. In this review, we will describe the progress of animal models of coronary heart disease following either spontaneous or diet-accelerated coronary lesions.
