[Animal Modeling - Efficacy Evaluation] - Mongolian Sand Rat Helicobacter pylori Model

  (1) The replication method involves feeding 5-week-old male Mongolian sand rats without specific pathogen levels with standard feed and sterilized water supplemented with libitum. Fasting without water for 24 hours before feeding, and returning to normal diet for 12 hours after feeding. Each sand rat was fed with 1ml of Hp suspension at a concentration of 100000000CFU/ml. After 2 weeks of bacterial inoculation in Mongolian sand rats, mild multinucleated and mononuclear cell mucosal infiltration appeared in the gastric antrum. At 4 weeks, moderate to severe chronic active gastritis occurred, and mild atrophic gastritis appeared in the gastric antrum and transition zone. Neutral and mononuclear cell infiltration appeared in the lamina propria, and lymphoid follicles appeared in the submucosal and deep layers of the gastric mucosa, as well as atypical intestinal metaplasia.

  (2) The characteristics of the model are that Mongolian sand rats rarely suffer from gastritis and have not been naturally infected with Hp. The amount of Hp required for modeling is relatively small, but the pathological changes are obvious. The lesions are most similar to those in humans, and a series of symptoms such as atrophic gastritis, ulcers, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer can occur. However, the commercial sources of Mongolian sand rats are limited, the modeling cycle is long, and there is little research on their pathophysiology, which to some extent limits their application.

  (3) In comparative medicine, human infection with Hp can not only cause chronic gastritis and peptic ulcers, but is also closely related to the occurrence of gastric cancer and gastric lymphoma. Mongolian sand rats infected with Hp exhibit symptoms similar to those of human Hp infection: different strains of Mongolian sand rats can be artificially infected with Hp and develop Hp colonization, which can last for more than 8 months. The chronic inflammatory response induced by Hp infection can last for more than 52 weeks, and after 26 weeks, symptoms such as intestinal metaplasia, gastric ulcers, and hyperplastic polyps may appear. Mongolian sand rats are one of the few animals that can induce gastric ulcers solely using Hp, and their pathological changes are the most severe, which is expected to become a standard model for studying gastric ulcers; So far, Mongolian sand rats are the only experimental animals that can induce gastric cancer when infected with Hp alone, so Mongolian sand rats play an irreplaceable role in the study of Hp pathogenesis.