Animal Models of Type 2 Diabetes Complications: A Review

ABSTRACT

Diabetes mellitus is a multifactorial metabolic disease, of which type 2 diabetes (T2D) is one of the most common. The complications of diabetes are far more harmful than diabetes itself. Type 2 diabetes complications include diabetic nephropathy (DN), diabetic heart disease, diabetic foot ulcers (DFU), diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN), and diabetic retinopathy (DR) et al. Many animal models have been developed to study the pathogenesis of T2D and discover an effective strategy to treat its consequences. In this sense, it is crucial to choose the right animal model for the corresponding diabetic complication. This paper summarizes and classifies the animal modeling approaches to T2D complications and provides a comprehensive review of their advantages and disadvantages. It is hopeful that this paper will provide theoretical support for animal trials of diabetic complications.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal models
• diabetic nephropathy
• diabetic retinopathy
• type 2 diabetes complications

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau, Macau SAR (File No. 0055/2019/AMJ; and SKL-QRCM (UM)-2023-2025).

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Science and Technology Development Fund, Macau SAR [SKL-QRCM (UM)-2023-2025]; Science and Technology Development Fund of Macau [No. 0055/2019/AMJ].