University of Southern California researchers have managed to derive the first embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats, which will help them create improved animal models to use in the study of numerous human diseases.

Principal investigator Qi-Long Ying, an assistant professor of cell and neurobiology at the Keck School of Medicine, stated in a university release that he felt confident that the achievement was a very important one, since rats were more related to humans on several accounts than mice.

Moreover, he added that many laboratories throughout the world would benefit from the development, given that the rat ES cells were to alter their methods of doing stem cell research from that point on.

Having been able to derive rat ES cells opens the door to creating rats that are to be used in biomedical research, with the rodents being set to be genetically modified so as to lack one or more of their genes.

Consequently, monitoring the aftermaths of the removal of a gene is bound to render scientists able to determine the specific functions of the genes and also to come to discover whether the latter are directly related to various diseases.

Ying, who also serves as a researcher at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at the university, has informed that the rat models would be used in the study of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, addiction and autoimmune diseases.

The rat ES cells research is scheduled to appear in the December 26 issue of Cell.