Rats as models for the study of obesity.

Gerontologists are concerned about obesity for two reasons. First, adiposity increases in humans with increasing age. Secondly, there is a strong possibility that the interaction between obesity and aging is deleterious. Since rats are a widely used animal model for the study of aging, it is likely that rats will be utilized in experiments designed to study in interactions between adiposity and aging. The object of this review is to provide the basic information needed for utilizing rat in such studies. To this end, changes in adipose tissue mass that occur during the life span of normal rats are described as are the types of rat models that have been used in the study of obesity. In addition, the characteristics of each of these obesity models are detailed.