Naked Mole Rat

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Naked mole rats are mouse-sized rodents that have become an important animal model in biomedical research. They play a unique mammalian role in behavioral and ecophysiological research of life underground. This chapter studies the general physiology, anatomy of organ systems, husbandry, and uses in research of the naked mole rats. Naked mole rats belong to the order Rodentia in that they have two incisor teeth on the upper and lower arcade that continuously grow. The skin is loose, wrinkled, and brownish pink in color. The body is for the most part absent of hairs with the exception of tactile hairs that are regularly arranged throughout the body and which are particularly prominent around the face and to a lesser extent on the tail. They are typically housed at 28–30°C, and at 50–60% relative humidity. Because naked mole rats are social and have cooperative behaviors, the study of their conduct has more applicability to people. The chapter describes the models of experimental research on the naked mole rat such as the model of reproductive suppression, model of somatosensory processing, model of bone elongation, and model of aging.

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Negligible senescence in the longest living rodent, the naked mole-rat: insights from a successfully aging species.

Rochelle Buffenstein (2008)

Aging refers to a gradual deterioration in function that, over time, leads to increased mortality risk, and declining fertility. This pervasive process occurs in almost all organisms, although some long-lived trees and cold water inhabitants reportedly show insignificant aging. Negligible senescence is characterized by attenuated age-related change in reproductive and physiological functions, as well as no observable age-related gradual increase in mortality rate. It was questioned whether the longest living rodent, the naked mole-rat, met these three strict criteria. Naked mole-rats live in captivity for more than 28.3 years, approximately 9 times longer than similar-sized mice. They maintain body composition from 2 to 24 years, and show only slight age-related changes in all physiological and morphological characteristics studied to date. Surprisingly breeding females show no decline in fertility even when well into their third decade of life. Moreover, these animals have never been observed to develop any spontaneous neoplasm. As such they do not show the typical age-associated acceleration in mortality risk that characterizes every other known mammalian species and may therefore be the first reported mammal showing negligible senescence over the majority of their long lifespan. Clearly physiological and biochemical processes in this species have evolved to dramatically extend healthy lifespan. The challenge that lies ahead is to understand what these mechanisms are.

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High oxidative damage levels in the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat.

Eric M DeWaal, Holly Van Houten, Anson Pierce … (2006)

Oxidative stress is reputed to be a significant contributor to the aging process and a key factor affecting species longevity. The tremendous natural variation in maximum species lifespan may be due to interspecific differences in reactive oxygen species generation, antioxidant defenses and/or levels of accrued oxidative damage to cellular macromolecules (such as DNA, lipids and proteins). The present study tests if the exceptional longevity of the longest living (> 28.3 years) rodent species known, the naked mole-rat (NMR, Heterocephalus glaber), is associated with attenuated levels of oxidative stress. We compare antioxidant defenses (reduced glutathione, GSH), redox status (GSH/GSSG), as well as lipid (malondialdehyde and isoprostanes), DNA (8-OHdG), and protein (carbonyls) oxidation levels in urine and various tissues from both mole-rats and similar-sized mice. Significantly lower GSH and GSH/GSSG in mole-rats indicate poorer antioxidant capacity and a surprisingly more pro-oxidative cellular environment, manifested by 10-fold higher levels of in vivo lipid peroxidation. Furthermore, mole-rats exhibit greater levels of accrued oxidative damage to lipids (twofold), DNA (approximately two to eight times) and proteins (1.5 to 2-fold) than physiologically age-matched mice, and equal to that of same-aged mice. Given that NMRs live an order of magnitude longer than predicted based on their body size, our findings strongly suggest that mechanisms other than attenuated oxidative stress explain the impressive longevity of this species.

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Comparative Social Behavior of Bees

Charles D. Michener (1969)

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Journal ID (nlm-ta): The Laboratory Rabbit, Guinea Pig, Hamster, and Other Rodents

Title: The Laboratory Rabbit, Guinea Pig, Hamster, and Other Rodents

Publication date PMC-release: 16 December 2011

Publication date (Print): 2012

Publication date (Electronic): 16 December 2011

Pages: 1055-1074

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[1 ]University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA

[2 ]University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

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Publisher ID: B978-0-12-380920-9.00045-6

DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-380920-9.00045-6

PMC ID: 7149588

SO-VID: 9df74e65-70a6-4aff-a773-65464a2338ba

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Naked Mole Rat

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Animal models of intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR)

Most cited references 103

Negligible senescence in the longest living rodent, the naked mole-rat: insights from a successfully aging species.

High oxidative damage levels in the longest-living rodent, the naked mole-rat.

Comparative Social Behavior of Bees

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