Why are rats commonly used in hepatotoxicity analysis - (Oct/06/2007 )

Hello! I've read up protocols on methodology of heptotoxicology. I wonder why are rats commonly used as the animal model. Any idea?

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relatively large kidney, reproduce rapidly, inbred lab strains, mammalian.

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you can prepare primary hepatocytes (for in vitro examinations) by high pressure perfusion - too difficult for mice ; another reason is comparability to data from literature

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