Z, Rat Strain

**Semantic type:** Mammal

**Definition:** Derived from a spontaneous mutation in the leptin receptor that appeared in a 13M rat colony bred at the Zucker Laboratory of Comparative Pathology (Stow, MA), genotype leprfa. The Zucker rat may come in four principal color variants, including brown, brown and white, black, and black and white. The mutation causes severe obesity, diabetes, abnormal heart function, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypercholesterolemia. The Zucker rat is utilized in biomedical research to study insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, metabolic syndromes, and obesity.

**Synonyms:** - ZUC-leprfa - ZUCKER - Zucker