The Brattleboro rat is a strain of laboratory rat descended from a litter born in
West Brattleboro,
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provin ...
in 1961 without the ability to produce the
hormone
A hormone (from the Greek participle , "setting in motion") is a class of signaling molecules in multicellular organisms that are sent to distant organs by complex biological processes to regulate physiology and behavior. Hormones are required ...
vasopressin
Human vasopressin, also called antidiuretic hormone (ADH), arginine vasopressin (AVP) or argipressin, is a hormone synthesized from the AVP gene as a peptide prohormone in neurons in the hypothalamus, and is converted to AVP. It then trave ...
, which helps control kidney function. The rats' lack of vasopressin was the result of a naturally occurring genetic
mutation
In biology, a mutation is an alteration in the nucleic acid sequence of the genome of an organism, virus, or extrachromosomal DNA. Viral genomes contain either DNA or RNA. Mutations result from errors during DNA or viral replication, m ...
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The rats were being raised for laboratory use by Dr.
Henry A. Schroeder and technician Tim Vinton, who noticed that the litter of 17 drank and urinated excessively. The researchers determined that the rats failed to produce vasopressin, an
antidiuretic
An antidiuretic is a substance that helps to control fluid balance in an animal's body by reducing urination, opposing diuresis. Its effects are opposite that of a diuretic. The major endogenous antidiuretics are antidiuretic hormone (ADH; also ca ...
hormone, and they gave the rats to
Dartmouth Medical School
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is o ...
(DMS). Researchers there determined that the rats had a mutation in the
gene
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a b ...
that regulates the production of vasopressin.
The DMS researchers bred the rats for distribution to scientists around the world to use in testing the possible role of vasopressin in any given biological function. The Brattleboro rat was an early and naturally occurring precursor of the
knockout rat.
See also
*
Laboratory rat
A laboratory rat or lab rat is a brown rat of the subspecies '' Rattus norvegicus domestica'' which is bred and kept for scientific research. While less commonly used for research than mice (see laboratory mouse), rats have served as an import ...
*
Diabetes insipidus
Diabetes insipidus (DI), recently renamed to Arginine Vasopressin Deficiency (AVP-D) and Arginine Vasopressin Resistance (AVP-R), is a condition characterized by large amounts of dilute urine and increased thirst. The amount of urine produced ...
References
*Amy Iadarola,
The Brattleboro Rat: Helping Knock Out Diabetes Insipidus" The Diabetes Insipidus Foundation, Inc. (2003).
Laboratory rat strains
Brattleboro, Vermont