Using Diet to Induce Metabolic Disease in Rodents

Animal models of disease are important tools that allow us to model human conditions and test therapies. Metabolic disease, also called the Metabolic Syndrome (MS), is characterized by obesity, insulin resistance (IR), dyslipidemia and hypertension, the simultaneous occurrence of which increases the risk for developing coronary artery disease, type II diabetes and stroke. While genetic (spontaneous) animal models exist, many researchers prefer diet-induced models of the MS, since it is generally thought that the environment (and particularly the diet) plays a large role in the growing incidence of this disease in humans. This chapter will briefly outline some of the diet-induced approaches for animal models of the MS.