Developing Transgenic NeuropeptideY Rats

Transgenic technology provides a powerful tool to study the function of a novel gene in the whole organism. The technology of transgenic rat production is receiving increasing attention. The rat is the model of choice in cardiovascular, endocrine, behavioral, and toxicology studies. This species offers a number of unique advantages for modeling human hypertension, inflammation, or neoplasia and has been used extensively for developing new therapeutic agents. The rat has also dominated in studies on the biology of NPY. Importantly, all of the known NPY receptors have been cloned, and novel NPY receptor antagonists have been designed based on the information generated in the rat. Therefore, NPY transgenic rats should provide useful models for studies elucidating the physiological role of NPY and designing candidate compounds for NPY receptor antagonists. Consequently, the accumulated wealth of published functional data from studies in rats makes interpretation of the results of transgenic studies in this species even more meaningful.