Wistar Rats for a UPM Study of Fish Oil, Diabetes and Brain Inflammation
UPM veterinary researchers tested whether fish oil protects the diabetic brain from inflammation. Prima Nexus supplied Wistar rats for the study.
Case study · From a published paper · Laboratory animals
The challenge
Menhaden fish oil is widely recognised for curbing inflammation in the brain, but how it affects cognition in diabetes was unclear. The team examined whether fish oil could suppress inflammation and cognitive impairment triggered by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in diabetic animals.
What Prima Nexus did
Male Wistar rats aged eight weeks were purchased from Prima Nexus and from a second supplier, Anilab in Indonesia, and acclimatised for seven days before the study began.
What the study found
Thirty rats were divided into five groups, including diabetic animals given LPS with 1 or 3 g/kg of fish oil. Fish oil at both doses inhibited high blood sugar and brain inflammation, lowering pro-inflammatory mediators and reducing neuronal damage and glial cell migration.
The treated animals also entered the novel arm of a Y-maze more often and spent longer there, a sign of preserved cognition. The authors suggest fish oil may support diabetes care by helping to prevent diabetes-related cognitive impairment.
Why it matters
Every in vivo study starts with the animals. Prima Nexus supplies laboratory animals for animal studies in Malaysia.
In the paper's own words
“Wistar rats (n = 30, male, 8 weeks) were purchased from Prima Nexus company, Malaysia and Anilab company (Indonesia).”
Pharmaceutical Biology, 2024, Materials and methods
About Prima Nexus
Prima Nexus Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian research coordination group founded in 2014. It connects universities, research institutes and global technology partners, and runs eight scientific platforms under one roof: proteomics (including ELISA and Luminex multiplex immunoassays), genomics, flow cytometry, stem cell research, animal research, clinical trials, bioinformatics, and regulatory and grant support. Programmes it coordinates have supported more than 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and research teams at more than 40 institutions across Malaysia. More about Prima Nexus.
