The success of the rat in research today has been linked to the Wistar Institute in America and

their development of the Wistar albino strain. There are currently 117 albino strains of the
laboratory rat, all of which can be traced genetically back to the one rat, likely to have arisen
as a mutation from a hooded (piebald) rat strain. Since their development as a laboratory
species, rats have been used to answer a wide range of basic science questions ranging from
physiology, immunology, pharmacology, toxicology, nutrition, behaviour and learning.
Researchers will choose rats over mice when it comes to their use in research for a number of
reasons. They are larger in size which makes handling, sampling and performing procedures
easier.
For physiological studies, we know a lot more about the responses and pathways in rats than
we do in mice due to the wealth of data collected over years of study in the rat, meaning
much of the foundation research is already done.
Some work suggests the rat more accurately reflects human physiology than mice do,
mimicking human disease more accurately in many cases.
Behavioural research also shows they are more suited to studies of learning and cognition
because they are more capable of learning tasks than mice.
Their ability to learn, remember, press buttons, levers, and even ride skateboards gives them a
huge advantage over mice and also allows us to look at the most basic principles behind
learning and behaviour which can then be translated to our knowledge of human behaviour
and learning.
The main advantage that mice did have over rats until the past few years was that scientists
had the ability to manipulate mouse DNA to produce transgenic animals, where specific
genes can be modified or even removed in order to study their function in health and disease.
But with the advent of the mapping of the rat genome and recent technical advances, this can
now also be done in rats, allowing the creation of knock-in (the insertion of a gene at a
specific location on the chromosome) and knock-out (making a gene inoperative) rat strains
to study very specific research questions.
Rats have a prevalence within biomedical research second only to humans and they share
90% of the genome with humans. Almost all disease-linked human genes we currently know
of have equivalent genes within the rat genome, making them a suitable research tool.
Well-established strains of rat are used to study a number of human diseases such as:
obesity and diabetes
cancer
 cardiovascular disease (including high blood pressure and heart failure)
neurological diseases (such as Parkinsons disease)
inflammatory and immune mediated diseases (such as certain types of kidney disease
and multiple sclerosis)
The strains of rat that have been developed to express human diseases were achieved through
a number of different processes. It may be that the strain carrying a particular disease feature
occurred spontaneously and the animals were then selectively bred. In some cases this has led
to identification of the genetic mutation that causes a comparable human disease.
http://theconversation.com/animals-in-research-rats-16634
In adulthood, every day of the animal is approximately equivalent to 34.8 human days (i.e.,
one rat month is comparable to three human years). Numerous researchers performed
experimental investigations in albino rats and estimated, in general, while considering their
entire life span, that a human month resembles every-day life of a laboratory rat. These
differences signify the variations in their anatomy, physiology and developmental processes,
which must be taken into consideration while analyzing the results or selecting the dose of
any research in rats when age is a crucial factor.
Laboratory rats live about 2-3.5 years (average 3 years), while the worldwide life expectancy
of humans is 80 years, with variations in countries in accordance with their socioeconomic
conditions.
Therefore, taking their life span together, it can be calculated as:
(80 365) (3 365) =26.7 human days = 1 rat day; and
365 26.7 = 13.8 rat days = 1 human year.
Thus, one human year almost equals two rat weeks (13.8 rat days) while correlating their
entire life span.
However, while considering the different phases of rat life, including weaning to aged phase,
it could be easily noticed that rats have a brief and accelerated childhood in respect of
humans. Rats develop rapidly during infancy and become sexually mature at about 6 weeks
of age. Humans, on the other hand, develop slowly and do not hit puberty until about the age
of 11-12 years. Social maturity is obtained in 5-6 months of age.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3733029/