Hypercholesterolemic hamster

Artery Muscle Adipose tissue Liver Pancreas Macrophage

A nutritional hamster model dedicated to cholesterol & lipoprotein metabolism studies

Key benefits

  • To select the best drug candidate in a very reproducible model with lipoprotein metabolism similar to humans (e.g.: high LDL-C levels and higher CETP activity)
  • To test the efficacy of novel drugs in a model validated with reference compounds

 

Animal model

  • Background Strain: Golden Syrian hamster
  • Gender/Weight: Male/90-110 g   
  • Diet: chow+cholesterol 0.3%
  • Time on diet: 4 weeks   
  • Positive reference compounds: fenofibrate, ezetimibe

 

Pathophysiological features

  • Higher plasma cholesterol and triglycerides
  • Higher blood glucose levels
  • Higher VLDL-cholesterol and triglycerides
  • Higher LDL-C levels
  • Limited HDL-C increase

AA

Hypercholesterolemic hamster
Hypercholesterolemic hamster graph 1 bis
  • Higher CETP activity (33%)
  • Higher PLTP activity (82%)
  • Higher LCAT activity (8%)
  • Hepatic steatosis/ higher liver cholesterol (535%), triglycerides (168%) and free fatty acids (437%)

AA

Hypercholesterolemic hamster graph 2

Scientific and pharmacological relevance

  • 2-week treatment with fenofibrate 100mg/kg/day or ezetimibe 10mg/kg/day
  • Fenofibrate lowers plasma cholesterol, triglycerides and free fatty acids
  • Ezetimibe lowers plasma cholesterol and triglycerides
  • Both ezetimibe and fenofibrate improve liver steatosis

AA

Hypercholesterolemic hamster graph 31
Hypercholesterolemic hamster graph 32

References and publications

Briand F, Bailhache E, Andre A, Magot T, Krempf M, Nguyen P, Ouguerram K.
The hyperenergetic-fed obese dog, a model of disturbance of apolipoprotein B-100 metabolism associated with insulin resistance: kinetic study using stable isotopes.
Metabolism. 2008 Jul;57(7):966-72. 

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