The Veterinary Resources Program, National Center for Research Resources, has established a Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbit (WHHL) breeding colony to be used as a resource for investigators. Watanabe et al. have reported that there are two types of WHHL rabbits; those with early development and high incidence of coronary atherosclerosis and those with late development and low incidence of coronary atherosclerosis. It has been shown that by identifying either type of WHHL rabbit it could be selectively bred to produce progeny exhibiting the particular phenotype of interest. Recently, it was reported that these two types of WHHL rabbits can be differentiated by their lipoprotein phenotypes. The rabbits with a high incidence of coronary atherosclerosis exhibit a lipoprotein phenotype similar to type III hyperlipidemia. The purpose to this study is to characterize the lipoprotein phenotypes in the N.I.H. WHHL rabbit colony so that the two types of WHHL rabbits can be identified.
