engleski

Effect of metabolic cage housing on metabolic changes in the liver of young male laboratory rats

The aim of this study is to investigate if metabolic cage housing is appropriate for studies of metabolic changes in rat liver. Metabolic cages are intended for separately collecting animal urine and feces and for measuring of feed and water consumption. They are often used in biomedical research, especially in studies involving metabolism and nutrition, where it is necessary to control the total intake of feed and water. In numerous studies, researchers have found that housing in a condition similar to housing in metabolic cages i.e. grid floor, lack of bedding, lack of movement, and single housing, could cause stress and thus alter the results and influence the research. Two months old male Wistar rats were randomly assigned to two different housing systems for a three week period. One group of rats was housed individually in metabolic cages and rats in the other group were paired and housed in polycarbonate type IV cages with wood shavings bedding material. The body mass and feed consumption were monitored daily. At the end of the study, four rats from each group were anesthetized and the liver and blood samples were taken. The rest of the rats were used for primary hepatocytes cell culture to determinate glucose production. Metabolic cage housing conditions in our study did not cause stress of sufficient impact to alter the test parameters.

metabolic cage ; glucose ; body mass

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