ReviewThe journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences2020
Bring Back the Rat!
Review in The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Repurposing effect of cardiovascular-metabolic drug to increase lifespan: a systematic review of animal studies and current clinical trial progress.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Pooled it
- Telomere-to-telomere genome assembly and a pangenome for the rat.Cell genomics · 2026Article
- Untargeted metabolomics reveals effects of calorie restriction on skeletal muscle in older female and male rats.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2026Article
- Reduced IGF-1 signaling fails to limit Alzheimer's disease progression in a novel rat model of IGF-1R haploinsufficiency.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Mitochondrial haplotype and sex modulate responses to endurance exercise training.The Journal of physiology · 2025Article
- Article
- A novel gene edited rat model of cerebral autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CARASIL).Cerebral circulation - cognition and behavior · 2025Article
- Recent advances in the development and application of colorectal cancer mouse models.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Review
- Mouse models used to test the role of reactive oxygen species in aging and age-related chronic diseases.Free radical biology & medicine · 2024Review
- Age, sex, and mitochondrial-haplotype influence gut microbiome composition and metabolites in a genetically diverse rat model.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- The Application of Rat Models inPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Effects of follicle-stimulating hormone on energy balance and tissue metabolic health after loss of ovarian function.American journal of physiology. Endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Article
- Article
- Visual EMDR stimulation mitigates acute varied stress effects on morphology of hippocampal neurons in male Wistar rats.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Correlations between coagulation abnormalities and inflammatory markers in trauma-induced coagulopathy.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Physiological Approaches Targeting Cellular and Mitochondrial Pathways Underlying Adipose Organ Senescence.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- A Genetically Heterogeneous Rat Model with Divergent Mitochondrial Genomes.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2023Article
- 2022 updates to the Rat Genome Database: a Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) resource.Genetics · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
As 2020 is "The Year of the Rat" in the Chinese astrological calendar, it seems an appropriate time to consider whether we should bring back the laboratory rat to front-and-center in research on the basic biology of mammalian aging. Beginning in the 1970s, aging research with rats became common, peaking in 1992 but then declined dramatically by 2018 as the mouse became preeminent. The purpose of this review is to highlight some of the historical contributions as well as current advantages of the rat as a mammalian model of human aging, because we suspect at least a generation of researchers is no longer aware of this history or these advantages. Herein, we compare and contrast the mouse and rat in the context of several biological domains relevant to their use as appropriate models of aging: phylogeny/domestication, longevity interventions, pathology/physiology, and behavior/cognition. It is not the goal of this review to give a complete characterization of the differences between mice and rats, but to provide important examples of why using rats as well as mice is important to advance our understanding of the biology of aging.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.