Historic perspectives and recent advances in major animal models of hypertension

Hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases are the leading causes of death
in many countries. The etiology of human essential hypertension is largely
unknown. It is highly likely that hypertension is a complex and multifactorial
disease resulting from the interaction of multiple genetic and environmental factors.
Animal models of hypertension have been proved to be useful to study the pathogenesis
of, and to find a new therapy for, hypertension. The aim of this article is
to briefly review the most widely used rodent models of experimental hypertension,
including history and recent advances. These models are classified as genetically-
induced, environmentally-induced, pharmacologically-induced, and renalinduced
hypertension according to the way of induction; the typical representatives
of each of these major types of experimental hypertension are spontaneous
hypertension, cold-induced hypertension, DOCA-salt-induced hypertension, and
renal-induced hypertension, respectively. The processes of induction of hypertension,
possible pathogenesis, characteristics, advantages, and limitations of
these animal models are reviewed. In addition, the clinical implications of the
above experimental models of hypertension are addressed.