Animal models of diabetes-associated vascular diseases: An update on available models and experimental analysis

Diabetes is a chronic metabolic disorder associated with the accelerated development of macrovascular (atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease) and microvascular complications (nephropathy, retinopathy and neuropathy), which remain the principal cause of mortality and morbidity in this population. Current understanding of cellular and molecular pathways of diabetes-driven vascular complications as well as therapeutic interventions have arisen from studying disease pathogenesis in animal models. Diabetes-associated vascular complications are multi-faceted, involving the interaction between various cellular and molecular pathways. Thus, the choice of an appropriate animal model to study vascular pathogenesis is important in our quest to identify innovative and mechanism-based targeted therapies to reduce the burden of diabetic complications. Herein, we provide up-to-date information on available mouse models of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetic vascular complications as well as experimental analysis and research outputs.