Biobreeding rat also known as the BB or BBDP rat is an inbred laboratory rat strain that spontaneously develops autoimmune Type 1 Diabetes. Like the NOD mice, BB rats are used as an animal model for Type 1 diabetes. The strain re-capitulates many of the features of human type 1 diabetes, and has contributed greatly to the research of T1D pathogenesis.
Two genes have been identified - the MHC Class II gene and Gimap5, causing a severe T cell lymphopenia. Recently, 8 further loci on rat chromosomes 1,2,3,6 (2 loci), 12 and 14 have been shown to be linked to Type 1 Diabetes in the BB rat.
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