The applications of transgenic rabbits in agriculture and biomedicine

Abstract

During the last decades transgenic rabbits have provided suitable biological model for regulating and manipulating of interest genes. Several studies showed transgenic rabbits can be produced by different methods. In the last two decades pronucleotide microinjection was conventional and common method for produce transgenic rabbits but the current studies demonstrated that SMGT method provides a simple and straightforward technology to introduce DNA into rabbits which has many advantages in comparison with other methods. The rabbit as both a laboratory and domestic animal species provides several opportunities for investigators to study the mechanisms of human disease such as lipoprotein metabolism, atherosclerosis and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Regarding to the present review transgenic rabbits in the last decade could have been managed to provide an alternative way to produce therapeutic proteins for treating human diseases. © Medwell Journals, 2011.