{{Short description|Strain of laboratory rat}} The '''Brattleboro rat''' is a strain of laboratory rat descended from a litter born in [[West Brattleboro]], [[Vermont]] in 1961 without the ability to produce the [[hormone]] [[vasopressin]], which helps control kidney function. The rats' lack of vasopressin was the result of a naturally occurring genetic [[mutation]].{{citation needed|date=December 2018}}
The rats were being raised for laboratory use by Dr. [[Henry A. Schroeder]] and technician Tim Vinton, who noticed that the litter of 17 drank and urinated excessively. The researchers determined that the rats failed to produce vasopressin, an [[antidiuretic]] hormone, and they gave the rats to [[Dartmouth Medical School]] (DMS). Researchers there determined that the rats had a mutation in the [[gene]] that regulates the production of vasopressin.
The DMS researchers bred the rats for distribution to scientists around the world to use in testing the possible role of vasopressin in any given biological function. The Brattleboro rat was an early and naturally occurring precursor of the [[knockout rat]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Csikota |first=Péter |last2=Fodor |first2=Anna |last3=Balázsfi |first3=Diána |last4=Pintér |first4=Ottó |last5=Mizukami |first5=Hiroaki |last6=Weger |first6=Stefan |last7=Heilbronn |first7=Regine |last8=Engelmann |first8=Mario |last9=Zelena |first9=Dóra |date=2016-07-03 |title=Vasopressinergic control of stress-related behavior: studies in Brattleboro rats |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10253890.2016.1183117 |journal=Stress |language=en |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=349–361 |doi=10.1080/10253890.2016.1183117 |issn=1025-3890|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morris |first=John F. |date=October 1982 |title=THE BRATTLEBORO MAGNOCELLULAR NEUROSECRETORY SYSTEM: A MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF PEPTIDERGIC NEURONS* |url=https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb37412.x |journal=Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=394 |issue=1 |pages=54–71 |doi=10.1111/j.1749-6632.1982.tb37412.x |issn=0077-8923}}</ref> They have also been widely used in neuroscience and behavioral research to explore vasopressin’s role in stress responses, social bonding, and memory.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fodor |first=Anna |author2=Kovács, Krisztina Bea |author3=Balázsfi, Diána |author4=Klausz, Barbara |author5=Pintér, Ottó |author6=Demeter, Kornél |author7=Daviu, Nuria |author8=Rabasa, Cristina |author9=Rotllant, David |author10=Nadal, Roser |author11=Zelena, Dóra |date=2016 |title=Depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors and stress-related neuronal activation in vasopressin-deficient female Brattleboro rats |journal=Neuroscience |language=en}}</ref>
==See also== * [[Laboratory rat]] * [[Diabetes insipidus]]
==References== {{Reflist}} *Amy Iadarola, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070816163333/http://www.diabetesinsipidus.org/4di_brattleboro_rat.htm The Brattleboro Rat: Helping Knock Out Diabetes Insipidus]," The Diabetes Insipidus Foundation, Inc. (2003).
[[Category:Laboratory rat strains]] [[Category:Brattleboro, Vermont]]