Strains and stocks of rats most widely used in biomedical research are listed in the table below. This is based on a PubMed search of the number of papers using the designated strain or stock for the years 2001-2005. Note that inbred strains were used on only 11.9% of occasions, with the vast majority of work being done using outbred Sprague-Dawley or Wistar rats. Only 12 inbred rat strains have a PubMed MeSH heading.
The most popular rat inbred strains are listed in descending order of the number of citations. Thus, the most widely used strain was F344, accounting for 32.1% of occasions on which an inbred strain was used, next being LEW at 22.5% and so on.
A list of inbred strains and their characteristics is maintained on the Jackson Laboratory web site.
There has been significant under-investment in inbred rat strains over a period of many years. A lot is known about F344, but relatively little about all the other strains. The Rat Phenome project being run by a Japanese consortium is characterising many isogenic rat strains for a wide range of physiological, biochemical and morphological parameters.
Stock/strain |
Number of papers |
MESH |
% All rats |
|
| Sprague-Dawley* | 49,477 | Yes |
40.9 |
– |
| Wistar* | 41,929 | Yes |
34.7 |
– |
| Long-Evans* | 13,467 | Yes |
11.1 |
– |
| Mutants | 1,601 | Yes |
1.3 |
– |
| Inbred strains | 14,353 |
11.9 |
||
Total* Outbred stocks |
120,827 |
– |
100.0 |
– |
Inbred strains only |
– |
– |
– |
-% Inbred rats |
| F344 | 4,611 | Yes |
3.8 |
32.1 |
| LEW | 3,227 | Yes |
2.7 |
22.5 |
| SHR | 2,086 | Yes |
1.7 |
14.5 |
| WKY | 1,821 | Yes |
1.5 |
12.7 |
| BN | 989 | Yes |
0.8 |
6.9 |
| Dahl SS and SR | 318 | Yes |
0.3 |
2.2 |
| WF | 309 | Yes |
0.3 |
2.2 |
| ACI | 224 | Yes |
0.2 |
1.6 |
| BB | 209 | Yes |
0.2 |
1.5 |
| OLETF | 171 | Yes |
0.1 |
1.2 |
| WAG | 95 | No |
0.1 |
0.7 |
| BUF | 90 | Yes |
0.1 |
0.6 |
| PVG | 79 | No |
0.1 |
0.6 |
| LEC | 66 | Yes |
0.1 |
0.5 |
| OM | 16 | No |
0.0 |
0.1 |
| COP | 15 | No |
0.0 |
0.1 |
| BDIX | 12 | No |
0.0 |
0.1 |
| BDII | 8 | No |
0.0 |
0.1 |
| BH | 7 | No |
0.0 |
0.0 |
Total inbred strains |
14,353 |
– |
11.9 |
100.0 |