Changes of blood biochemistry in the rabbit animal model in atherosclerosis research; a time- or stress-effect
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2011
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6
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English
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2011
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Rabbits are widely used in biomedical research and especially as animal models in atherosclerosis studies. Blood biochemistry is used to monitor progression of disease, before final evaluation including pathology of arteries and organs. The aim of the present study was to assess the consistency of the biochemical profile of New Zealand White rabbits on standard diet from 3 to 6 months of age, during which they are often used experimentally. Methods and results Eight conventional male 3-month-old New Zealand White rabbits were used. Blood samples were taken at baseline, 1, 2 and 3 months later. Plasma glucose, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triacylglycerol concentrations, and alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transferase activities and malondialdehyde were measured. Statistically significant time-related changes were observed in glucose, total cholesterol and triacylglycerol, which were not correlated with aortic lesions at 6 months of age. Similarly, hepatic enzyme activity had significant time-related changes, without a corresponding liver pathology. Conclusions Age progression and stress due to single housing may be the underlying reasons for these biochemistry changes. These early changes, indicative of metabolic alterations, should be taken into account even in short-term lipid/atherosclerosis studies, where age and standard diet are not expected to have an effect on the control group of a study.
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Dontaset al.Lipids in Health and Disease2011,10:139 http://www.lipidworld.com/content/10/1/139
R E S E A R C HOpen Access Changes of blood biochemistry in the rabbit animal model in atherosclerosis research; a time or stresseffect 1,2* 1,3 14 5 Ismene A Dontas, Katerina A Marinou, Dimitrios Iliopoulos , Nektaria Tsantila , George Agrogiannis , 6 1,7 Apostolos Papaloisand Theodore Karatzas
Abstract Background:Rabbits are widely used in biomedical research and especially as animal models in atherosclerosis studies. Blood biochemistry is used to monitor progression of disease, before final evaluation including pathology of arteries and organs. The aim of the present study was to assess the consistency of the biochemical profile of New Zealand White rabbits on standard diet from 3 to 6 months of age, during which they are often used experimentally. Methods and results:Eight conventional male 3monthold New Zealand White rabbits were used. Blood samples were taken at baseline, 1, 2 and 3 months later. Plasma glucose, total cholesterol, highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol, lowdensity lipoprotein cholesterol, triacylglycerol concentrations, and alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, gamma glutamyl transferase activities and malondialdehyde were measured. Statistically significant timerelated changes were observed in glucose, total cholesterol and triacylglycerol, which were not correlated with aortic lesions at 6 months of age. Similarly, hepatic enzyme activity had significant timerelated changes, without a corresponding liver pathology. Conclusions:Age progression and stress due to single housing may be the underlying reasons for these biochemistry changes. These early changes, indicative of metabolic alterations, should be taken into account even in shortterm lipid/atherosclerosis studies, where age and standard diet are not expected to have an effect on the control group of a study. Keywords:Animal model, rabbit, atherosclerosis, blood biochemistry, aging, stress, timerelated changes, control animals
Background Rabbits are widely used in biomedical research and especially as animal models in atherosclerosis studies [1,2]. For the induction of the nongenetic hyperlipi demic rabbit animal model of atherosclerosis, several atherogenic diets of varying cholesterol concentrations and administration times are applied [35]. Blood bio chemistry is used to monitor progression of disease, before final evaluation including pathology of arteries and organs [1,6,7]. With blood biochemistry monitoring,
* Correspondence: idontas@med.uoa.gr 1 Laboratory of Experimental Surgery and Surgical Research“N.S. Christeas”, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Greece Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
the number of animals used is reduced as they serve as their own controls, and additionally, minimal discomfort is induced by blood sampling. We considered that time or agerelated changes of blood biochemistry of control animals fed standard diets should be thoroughly investigated, as, in most studies, their values are compared to those of the experimental groups [1,8,9]. Blood biochemical parameters have been shown to be subject to change with increasing age in many animal species [1012]. The aim of the present study therefore was to assess the consistency of the bio chemical profile of New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits on a standard rabbit diet from 3 to 6 months of age,
© 2011 Dontas et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
