The chinchilla as a novel animal model of pregnancy

Abstract

Several parameters are important when choosing the most appropriate animal to model human obstetrics, including gestation period, number of fetuses per gestation and placental structure. The domesticated long-tailed chinchilla (Chinchilla lanigera) is a well-suited and appropriate animal model of pregnancy that often will carry only one offspring and has a long gestation period of 105–115 days. Furthermore, the chinchilla placenta is of the haemomonochorial labyrinthine type and is therefore comparable to the human villous haemomonochorial placenta. This proof-of-concept study demonstrated the feasibility in laboratory settings, and demonstrated the potential of the pregnant chinchilla as an animal model for obstetric research and its potential usefulness for non-invasive measurements in the placenta. We demonstrate measurements of the placental and fetal metabolism (demonstrated in vivo by hyperpolarized MRI and in vitro by qPCR analyses), placental vessels (demonstrated ex vivo by contrast-enhanced CT angiography) and overall anatomy (demonstrated in vivo by whole-body CT).

Biodistribution of [11C]-Metformin and mRNA Expression of Placentae Metformin Transporters in the Pregnant Chinchilla

“…An appropriate animal model of pregnancy should account for the number of fetuses, the length of gestation period, and the placental structure. The Chinchilla lanigera poses excellent characteristics in this matter, carrying only one or two cubs and having a hemomonochorial placenta barrier like the human placenta (Figure 1) [12]. Furthermore, the chinchilla has a long gestation period (115 days), and the offspring are precocious (matured neurodevelopment at birth, e.g., born with open eyes) like the human newborn [13].…”

“…Furthermore, the chinchilla has a long gestation period (115 days), and the offspring are precocious (matured neurodevelopment at birth, e.g., born with open eyes) like the human newborn [13]. Finally, the relatively large size of the chinchilla fetuses allows for the use of diagnostic imaging methods [12]. These characteristics suggest that the chinchilla is superior to other rodents as animal model of human pregnancy.…”

Placental physiology monitored by hyperpolarized dynamic 13 C magnetic resonance

“…In addition, a growing field relies on administering HP precursors like [1-13 C]pyruvate to monitor metabolism and in particular the rates of glycolytic processes (37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44). Recent work also demonstrated the feasibility of using HP pyruvate to noninvasively examine fetoplacental transport in guinea pigs and chinchillas (45,46). The present study assesses by HP DNP MR how different metabolites behave in the placentas of naïve and diseased pregnant rats.…”

Morphological and morphometrical aspects of intima and media of the common, external and internal iliac arteries in Chinchilla lanigera (Rodentia, Chinchillidae) bred in captivity

“…More than that, an advanced statistical approach is used to check whether the method can be used as an indicator for some fine differences that cannot be perceived by a regular histological investigation or it could be used as a tool for type differentiation. The results provided by such a study can offer valuable information both for human and veterinary pathology, as chinchillas are lately used as experimental animals (Shaffer et al 2013;Mikkelsen et al 2017;Reis et al 2017) for a series of pathological or nonpathological conditions.…”