Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Tremendous progress has been made in the prevention and treatment of CVD; however, there are still lots of limitations and new technology is needed. Nanoparticles have been studied recently for CVD due to their nanoscale size and unique properties, and hold a potential to be a novel therapy for the treatment. To test the safety and effectiveness of drug-loaded nanoparticles for CVD prior to human studies, animal disease models are unavoidably needed. This review summarized the animal models used in the research of nanoparticles for CVD and provided a generic picture of current use of CVD animal models according to the different types of diseases which should be prioritized when considering the application of nanoparticles in treating CVD. This review would be useful resources not only for life science researchers and clinicians but also for those from chemistry and materials sciences background who may not have a systematic knowledge about CVD animal models.

心血管疾病 (CVD) 是全世界死亡率和发病率的主要原因。心血管疾病防治取得重大进展；但是，仍然存在很多限制，需要新技术。由于纳米粒子的纳米级尺寸和独特的特性，纳米粒子最近被用于 CVD 研究，并有可能成为一种新的治疗方法。为了在人体研究之前测试载药纳米颗粒用于 CVD 的安全性和有效性，不可避免地需要动物疾病模型。本综述总结了用于 CVD 纳米颗粒研究的动物模型，并根据在考虑将纳米颗粒应用于治疗 CVD 时应优先考虑的不同疾病类型，提供了当前使用 CVD 动物模型的一般情况。