Lipid Profiles for a Metabolic Syndrome Model: Testing Piper sarmentosum in Rats
A UKM pharmacology team tested a local medicinal plant against diet-induced obesity. Prima Nexus analysed the serum lipid profiles.
Case study · From a published paper · Serum lipid profile analysis
The challenge
Obesity and high blood lipids are risk factors for vascular disease. Piper sarmentosum, known in Malaysia as kaduk, is a nutritious plant with a range of phytochemicals. The team wanted to know whether its methanolic extract could counter obesity and hyperlipidaemia in an animal model.
What Prima Nexus did
Blood was taken at day 0, week 8 and week 12. The serum samples were sent to Prima Nexus for lipid profile analysis, using commercial kits from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.
What the study found
Forty male Wistar rats were divided into five groups. Drinking water with 20% fructose for 12 weeks induced metabolic abnormality, and treatment with the plant extract (125 mg/kg) or naringin (100 mg/kg) was given by mouth from week 8 for four weeks.
Fructose raised body weight, fat mass, LDL, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HMG-CoA reductase and leptin, and lowered HDL and adiponectin. Both treatments significantly reduced these changes, and the authors conclude that the extract improved obesity and hyperlipidaemia by suppressing fat cells and inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase.
Why it matters
Natural product studies depend on consistent, well-standardised lab results across groups and time points. Prima Nexus supports animal studies including the analysis of the samples they produce.
In the paper's own words
“The serum samples were sent to Prima Nexus for analysis of the lipid profile. The analysis was done using commercial kits from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics.”
Molecules, 2021, 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.
