title: High-fat diet-induced obesity Rat model: a comparison between Wistar and Sprague-Dawley Rat.
abstract: In the past decades, obesity and associated metabolic complications have reached epidemic proportions. For the study of these pathologies, a number of animal models have been developed. However, a direct comparison between Wistar and Sprague-Dawley (SD) Rat as models of high-fat (HF) diet-induced obesity has not been adequately evaluated so far. Wistar and SD rats were assigned for 2 experimental groups for 17 weeks: standard (St) and high-fat (HF) diet groups. To assess some of the features of the metabolic syndrome, oral glucose tolerance tests, systolic blood pressure measurements and blood biochemical analysis were performed throughout the study. The gut microbiota composition of the animals of each group was evaluated at the end of the study by real-time PCR. HF diet increased weight gain, body fat mass, mesenteric adipocyte's size, adiponectin and leptin plasma levels and decreased oral glucose tolerance in both Wistar and SD rats. However, the majority of these effects were more pronounced or earlier detected in Wistar rats. The gut microbiota of SD rats was less abundant in Bacteroides and Prevotella but richer in Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus comparatively to the gut microbiota of Wistar rats. Nevertheless, the modulation of the gut microbiota by HF diet was similar in both strains, except for Clostridium leptum that was only reduced in Wistar rats fed with HF diet. In conclusion, both Wistar and SD Rat can be used as models of HF diet-induced obesity although the metabolic effects caused by HF diet seemed to be more pronounced in Wistar Rat. Differences in the gut microbial ecology may account for the worsened metabolic scenario observed in Wistar Rat.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; CINTESIS; Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação em Saúde; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Cláudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto ; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Meireles
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto ; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Sónia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Norberto
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto ; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Leite
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro; Vila Real, Portugal.
authors.forename: Joana
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Freitas
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; CINTESIS; Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação em Saúde; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Diogo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pestana
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; Faculdade de Ciências da Nutrição e da Alimentação; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; Faculdade de Ciências; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Faria
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Bioquímica; Faculdade de Medicina; Universidade do Porto; Porto, Portugal; CINTESIS; Centro de Investigação em Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação em Saúde; Porto, Portugal.
authors.forename: Conceição
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Calhau
keywords: animal models; diet-induced obesity; high-fat diet; metabolic syndrome; microbiota; obesity