Bioimaging of Transgenic Rats Established at Jichi Medical University: Applications in Transplantation Research.

Research in the life sciences has been greatly advanced by the ability to directly visualize cells, tissues, and organs. Preclinical studies often involve many small and large animal experiments and, frequently, cell and organ transplantations. The rat is an excellent animal model for the development of transplantation and surgical techniques because of its small size and ability to breed in small spaces. Ten years ago, we established color-imaging transgenic rats and methods for the direct visualization of their tissues. Since then, our transgenic rats have been used throughout the various fields that are concerned with cell transplantation therapy. In this minireview, we summarize results from some of the groups that have used our transgenic rats at the bench level and in cell transplantation research.