New Zealand rabbit
The New Zealand is a breed of rabbit, which despite the name, is American in origin. The breed originated in California, possibly from rabbits imported from New Zealand. New Zealand rabbits are available in five colors recognized by the American Rabbit Breeders' Association (ARBA): white, red, black, blue, and broken. Crossbreeding can result in many other variations, such as gold-tipped steel and chestnut agouti. They average 10–12 lb (4.5–5.4 kg) with the does being slightly larger than the bucks. New Zealands are bred for meat, pelts, show, and laboratory uses, being the most commonly used breed of rabbit both for testing and meat production. They are also bred as pet rabbits but mostly breed for meat.
Hunjadi et al. investigated whether Matcha Green Tea Powder modulates the HDL function and thereby influences the atherogenic process in an animal model with a strong influence on humans situation.
After a pretreatment phase based on a standard diet, ten female NZW rabbits were fed a high-fat diet for 20 weeks. The treatment group was additionally administered 1% matcha during the whole experiment. Long-term matcha treatment led to lowered HDL cholesterol, impaired cholesterol transport manifested by reduced in vitro cholesterol efflux capacity, reduced CETP-mediated cholesterol ester (CE) transfer between HDL and triglyceride-rich particles, and reduced macrophage-specific in vivo transfer, where we observed increased absorption of cholesterol in the liver but a decreased secretion into bile. Pulse wave velocity, assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance, was increased in matcha-treated animals, and a similar trend was observed for atherosclerotic lesion formation.
Long-term matcha green tea treatment of hypercholesterolemic rabbits caused impaired reverse cholesterol transport and increased vascular stiffness, and susceptibility for atherosclerotic lesion development. 1).
Wanderer S, Grüter BE, Strange F, Boillat G, Sivanrupan S, Rey J, von Gunten M, Remonda L, Widmer HR, Casoni D, Andereggen L, Fandino J, Marbacher S. Aspirin treatment prevents inflammation in experimental bifurcation aneurysms in New Zealand White rabbits. J Neurointerv Surg. 2021 Mar 30:neurintsurg-2020-017261. doi: 10.1136/neurintsurg-2020-017261. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33785639.