The Recent Progress of Golden Hamsters in Clinical Medicine

QIU Chen^1,2, LI Jianmin^1,2,3,4*

（¹State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine and Offspring Health, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China; ²Jiangsu Laboratory Animal Center, Jiangsu Animal Experimental Center of Medicine and Pharmacy, Animal Core facility, Key Laboratory of Model Animal, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China; ³Department of Cell Biology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China; ⁴Collaborative Innovation Center for Cardiovascular Disease Translational Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing 211166, China)

Abstract:

Animal models are essential for clinical medical research and new drug discovery. While the mouse model remains a primary animal model, recent evidence has highlighted its limitations in accurately reflect-ing human diseases. The development of alternative animal models is critical to overcome these obstacles in a variety of fields. Golden hamsters (Syrian hamsters) emerge as superior models for human disease studies in areas like reproduction, oncology, virology, lipid metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, due to their closer alignment with human gene expression patterns compared to mice. The advancement of gene editing techniques has further expanded the utility of golden hamsters as models for a range of human diseases. This review focuses on reproductive medicine, lipid metabolism and cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, and oncology, with an emphasis on the use of gene-edited golden hamsters in medical research to enhance the understanding of the role of genes in human health and diseases

CSTR: 32200.14.cjcb.2024.04.0019