Experimental Animal Models: Tools to Investigate Antidiabetic Activity

Abstract: About 2.8% of the global population are being suffered from Diabetes mellitus. Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders that is characterized by an absolute lack of insulin and resulting in hyperglycemia. To overcome the challenges, many antidiabetic drugs are being used, and research is being carried out in search of more effective anti-diabetic drugs. To study the effectiveness of antidiabetic drugs, many diabetic models, chemicals, and diabetogenic hormones were used at the research level. In this review, we summarised various animal models used, chemicals that induce diabetes, their properties, and the mechanism of action of these models. Further, diabetes mellitus is generally induced in laboratory animals by several methods that include: chemical, surgical and genetic manipulations. To better understand both the pathogenesis and potential therapeutic agents, appropriate animal models of type 1 & type 2 diabetes mellitus are needed. However, for an animal model to have relevance to the study of diabetes, either the characteristics of the animal model should mirror the pathophysiology and natural history of diabetes or the model should develop complications of diabetes with an etiology similar to that of the human condition. There appears to be no single animal model that encompasses all of these characteristics, but there are many that provide very similar characteristics in one or more aspects of diabetes in humans. The use of the appropriate animal model based on these similarities can provide much-needed data on pathophysiological mechanisms operative in human diabetes.