biostudies-literatureLu RNatural Science Foundation of Shaanxi ProvincePriority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education InstitutionsMinistry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and TechnologyNational Natural Science Foundation of ChinaNational Key Research and Development Program of China29-38https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC6197696biostudies-literatureUnknown36Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been the very frequently used as animal models in the study of human lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis, because they have similar lipoprotein metabolism to humans. Most of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis rabbit models are produced by feeding rabbits a high-cholesterol diet. Gene editing or knockout (KO) offered another means of producing rabbit models for study of the metabolism of lipids and lipoproteins. Even so, apolipoprotein (Apo)E KO rabbits must be fed a high-cholesterol diet to induce hyperlipidemia. In this study, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 system anchored exon 7 of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) in an attempt to generate KO rabbits. We designed two sgRNA sequences located in E7:g.7055-7074 and E7:g.7102-7124 of rabbit LDLR gene, reEBioMedicineSpontaneous severe hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis lesions in rabbits with deficiency of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) on exon 7.PMC6197696817704572016YFE01260008157039215H047182017JZ028Yuan TZhou MLu YWu DCheng YZhang THe ZFan JLiang JChen YWang YLu RYuan YfalseSpontaneous severe hypercholesterolemia and atherosclerosis lesions in rabbits with deficiency of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) on exon 7.Rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been the very frequently used as animal models in the study of human lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis, because they have similar lipoprotein metabolism to humans. Most of hyperlipidemia and atherosclerosis rabbit models are produced by feeding rabbits a high-cholesterol diet. Gene editing or knockout (KO) offered another means of producing rabbit models for study of the metabolism of lipids and lipoproteins. Even so, apolipoprotein (Apo)E KO rabbits must be fed a high-cholesterol diet to induce hyperlipidemia. In this study, we used the CRISPR/Cas9 system anchored exon 7 of low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) in an attempt to generate KO rabbits. We designed two sgRNA sequences located in E7:g.7055-7074 and E7:g.7102-7124 of rabbit LDLR gene, re2018-01-01T00:00:00Z2018 Oct2025-04-18T12:07:58.807Z2019-03-27T00:04:14ZS-EPMC61976963024349010.1016/j.ebiom.2018.09.020