| Osteoporosis (OP) is a common systemic bone metabolic disease, which easily leads to the increase of bone fragility and fracture. It severely endangers our personal health and aggravates the burden of public health care. OP researches are emerging and tightly associated with the establishment of suitable osteoporotic animal models. Current modeling methods include induction modeling and genetic engineering modeling. Induction modeling includes operation/drug/diet/induction on rats, mice, rabbits, sheep, pigs, dogs, zebra fishes, and non-human primates. In the genetic engineering modeling, genes are usually modified by means of gene editing techniques to shape model animals with osteoporotic characteristics, like mice and zebra fishes. Each animal model and modeling method has various advantage in certain studies regarding the research rationale and key scientific issue. In this review, various methods of modeling as well as the application of osteoporotic animals are summarized and analyzed to provide references for future researches in the pathogenesis, drug screening, treatment and prevention of OP. |