Like the NOD mice, BB rats are used as an animal model for Type 1 diabetes.
The strain re-capitulates many of the features of human type 1 diabetes, and has contributed greatly to the research of T1D pathogenesis.
[3] The Gimap5 mutation results in severe T cell lymphopenia in the BB rat and is thought to contribute to T1D pathogenesis through impaired development and function and regulatory T cells.
They were originally derived from a Canadian colony of outbred Wistar rats that spontaneously develop hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis, characteristic of clinical onset of T1D.
One in Worcester, Massachusetts, has been inbred and known as BBDP/Wor and another one in Ottawa, Canada, an outbred strain known as BBdp.