A reliable model of metabolic syndrome in rats

Introduction Metabolic syndrome has become a major public-health challenge worldwide. Major cause is junk food associated with a genetic predisposition. Objective The aim of this study was to characterize a model of metabolic syndrome induced by high-fat diet (HFD) in rats having a polygenic predisposition to develop obesity. Method Obese prone (OP) and obese resistant (OR) Sprague Dawley rats were respectively fed with a HFD and a standard diet (Std) for 16 weeks or 1year (4 groups, n = 10 per group). Feeding behaviour, caloric intake, body weight and systemic arterial pressure were weekly recorded. At the end of the protocol, abdominal obesity, glucose tolerance, lipidemia and blood pressure were compared between groups. Results Despite, their high calorie diet, OP rats showed a higher daily food consumption and calorie intake. Plasma leptin was increased in OP-HFD (5.8 ± 0.5 ng/ml versus 1 ± 0.5 ng/ml in OR-Std, P  Conclusion One year of HFD in Sprague Dawley rats selected for their predisposition to obesity leads to a reliable metabolic syndrome characterized by abdominal obesity, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia and hypertension.