Two spontaneous lipid metabolism mutants have been characterized and also used extensively in atherosclerosis research – the Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic (WHHL) rabbit (LDL receptor deficient) and the St. Thomas’ Hospital rabbit (VLDL, IDL, and LDL elevated) serve as models for familial hypercholesterolemia and familial combined hyperlipidemia, respectively. Homozygous WHHL rabbits and St. Thomas’ Hospital rabbits predictably develop atherosclerotic lesions on normal diets. Finally, there are at least 19 transgenic rabbit lines now available specifically for the study of cardiovascular disease that express a wide variety of human transgenes many of which code for proteins implicated in atherosclerosis