Differential Proneness to Obesity in Two Rat Strains with Diverse Immune Responses.

Although obesity and metabolic syndrome (comprising at least three of the following traits-abdominal obesity, elevated blood pressure, triglycerides and glucose/insulin resistance, and reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol in serum) are known to impact immune system activity, these conditions are often not considered when immune response characteristics are investigated in various rodent strains. In this work, metabolic syndrome indices are compared in 3 month-old (young) and 6 month-old (adult) rats of Dark Agouti (DA) and Albino Oxford (AO) strains, while parameters of coagulation, inflammation and oxidative stress were determined in young animals. Study reveals that both young and adult AO rats are obese, intolerant to glucose with higher levels of triglycerides and lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol when compared to age-matched DA rats. Parameters of coagulation, inflammation and oxidative stress that may contribute to the worsening of metabolic syndrome during aging are also higher in young AO rats. Metabolic syndrome observed in young and intensified in adult AO rats should be taken into consideration when analyzing alterations in immune reactivity during aging in this rat strain.