Human like severe hypertriglyceridemia in a high fat fed chicken model

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the biggest cause of mortality globally. Controlling the risk factors for CVD such as blood cholesterol and triglycerides is the hallmark of primary prevention of CVD. There are several drugs to control cholesterol that are available but not many approaches to reducing triglycerides safely are available. High blood triglycerides or hypertriglyceridemia in humans is classified as moderate (200-400 mg/dl plasma levels) severe (400-800 mg/dl) and very severe (>800 mg/dl). There are not many appropriate in vivo models to study human like severe hypertriglyceridemia. We show here that high fat fed chickens rapidly and in a sustained manner respond by demonstrating triglyceride levels reminiscent of severe hypertriglyceridemia in humans. Such a model could be useful in better understanding this human disease as well as serve to test new therapies.