Body Composition Of Female Rats Research Articles

Effects of testosterone treatment on anal sphincter damage repair in ovariectomized rats.

Fecal incontinence (FI) generally occurs with anal sphincter damage caused by vaginal delivery in women, obvious FI can develop in the postmenopausal stage. This pelvic floor dysfunction has no rational medical therapeutic options. We investigated the effect of testosterone treatment on the anal sphincter structure, serum thiol/disulfide levels, uterine tissue, and body composition in female rats in an experimental menopause-FI model. The animal experiments were performed between September and November 2020 at Experimental Animal Application and Research Center, Afyon Kocatepe University, Afyonkarahisar, Turkey. Thirty-two female rats were divided into four groups: sham, saline, 10 mg/kg testosterone undecanoate, 100 mg/kg testosterone undecanoate. Except for the sham group, all the other groups underwent ovariectomy (OVE) to create a menopause model. Two weeks after this procedure, the FI model was created under general anesthesia in all rat groups. At the end of the experiment, the rats were placed under general anesthesia, weighed, and euthanized after recording the data. The anal sphincter region and uterine tissue samples were collected for histopathological examinations, and blood samples were collected for total testosterone and thiol/disulfide homeostasis analyses. An increase in anal sphincter muscles and connective tissue thickness was observed in the testosterone-administered groups (p = 0.001). No difference was detected between the groups in the total thiol, native thiol, and disulfide balance (p = 0.087, p = 0.604, p = 0.092). The testosterone-treated groups did not have severe uterine epithelial degradation, hyperemia, or increased endometrial thickness (p = 0.186, p = 0.222, p = 0.630). The body weight of all rats increased (p < 0.05), but the omental weight did not increase (p = 0.061). Testosterone treatment increased the anal sphincter muscle and connective tissue thickness without causing any oxidative stress and did not result in a pathological change in the uterine tissue and body fat composition.

Effects of limited access to a fat option on food intake and body composition in female rats

Objective The present investigation sought to determine if limiting access to an optional fatty food would induce binge-type behavior patterns in non–energy-deprived female rats. Method Four groups of rats had continuous access to a commercial rodent diet throughout the 8-week study. In addition: (1) the control group had no access to vegetable shortening; (2) the high limitation group had access to shortening for 2 hr for 3 days each week; (3) the low limitation group had access to shortening for 2 hr every day; and (4) the no limitation group had continuous access to shortening. Results As access to the shortening decreased, intake during the 2-hr access period increased. Total energy intake and body weight did not differ among groups. Body fat was greatest in the rats that ate the most cumulative shortening. Discussion These results indicate that, even under non–energy-deprived conditions, limiting access to a preferred fatty food can induce binge-type behavior in female rats. © 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Eat Disord 28: 436–445, 2000.

Effects of limited access to a fat option on food intake and body composition in female rats

The present investigation sought to determine if limiting access to an optional fatty food would induce binge-type behavior patterns in non-energy-deprived female rats. Four groups of rats had continuous access to a commercial rodent diet throughout the 8-week study. In addition: (1) the control group had no access to vegetable shortening; (2) the high limitation group had access to shortening for 2 hr for 3 days each week; (3) the low limitation group had access to shortening for 2 hr every day; and (4) the no limitation group had continuous access to shortening. As access to the shortening decreased, intake during the 2-hr access period increased. Total energy intake and body weight did not differ among groups. Body fat was greatest in the rats that ate the most cumulative shortening. These results indicate that, even under non-energy-deprived conditions, limiting access to a preferred fatty food can induce binge-type behavior in female rats.

Effect of dietary restriction and/or exercise on 23-h metabolic rate and body composition in female rats

This study examined the effects of three levels of dietary intake [ad libitum fed (AL), moderately severe (MSR), and severe restriction (SR)] and two levels of exercise [cage confinement (CC) and exercise training (E)] on 23-h resting metabolic rate (RMR) and body composition in 47 female Sprague-Dawley rats. At the end of the 9-wk study, the MSR and SR groups weighed approximately 81 and 61%, respectively, of the AL-CC group. RMR was depressed for the MSR and SR groups compared with the AL-CC group. This was true whether expressed on an absolute (ml/min) or relative (ml.min-1.kg-0.75) basis. On a relative basis, which accounts for changes caused by weight loss alone, the RMR decreased by approximately 12 and 19%, respectively, for the MSR and SR groups compared with the AL-CC group. Although E resulted in significant differences in fat mass, percent fat, percent water, and heart mass between the AL groups, there were no significant differences between E and CC groups at either the MSR or SR level of dietary intake for any of the variables measured (i.e., body composition, muscle mass, RMR). Thus E does not appear to affect the composition of lost weight or RMR during diet-induced weight loss for female rats of normal weight.

Use of Deuterium Oxide for the in Vivo Prediction of Body Composition in Female Rats in Various Physiological States

Deuterium oxide (D2O) was used to estimate total body water (TBW) and subsequently to predict the body composition of female rats at breeding, after pregnancy and after lactation as influenced by dietary manipulation. The correlation between D2O space (grams) and body water (grams) was 0.893 (P < 0.01). Deuterium oxide space accounted for 70% of the variance in predicting the weight of TBW. Fixed effects (pregnancy, lactation, feeding levels and two-way interactions) accounted for an additional 10% (P < 0.05) of the variance. The correlation between TBW in grams (predicted from D2O space, grams) and total body protein (grams) was 0.700 (P < 0.01). Total body water accounted for 49% of the variance in total body protein. Fixed effects accounted for an additional 21% (P < 0.05) of the variance in total weight of body protein. The correlations between D2O space (%) and body water (%) and between D20 space (%) and body fat (%) were 0.786 (P < 0.01) and -0.758 (P < 0.01), respectively. The accuracy of estimation of body water (%) and body fat (%) from D2O space was not significantly improved (P > 0.05) when the fixed effects (pregnancy, lactation, feeding levels and two-way interactions) were included in the model.