A metabonomic study of strain- and age-related differences in the Zucker rat.

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) coupled to orthogonal acceleration time-of-flight mass spectrometry (oa-TOFMS) in positive electrospray ionization mode was used to obtain metabolite profiles for urine obtained from three strains of Zucker rat. These were the Zucker lean, the Zucker (fa/fa) obese and the Zucker lean/(fa) cross. Clear age- and strain-related differences were noted with the leptin-deficient (fa/fa) obese animal showing significant differences from both the other Zucker rat strains with respect to metabolite profiles.