Variation in exocrine pancreatic secretion in rats due to different commercial diets

MARIA E. SABBATINI; NESTOR PELLEGRINO; MARIANA RIOS; LILIANA G. BIANCIOTTI; MARCELO S. VATTA

LAB ANIMAL

Elsevier

Lugar: Nueva York ; Año: 2006 vol. 35 p. 41 - 49

0093-7355

The aim of the present work was to determine the influence of the composition of commercial standard rodent diets on exocrine pancreatic function. For these studies two different widely used commercial animal diets were chosen. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into two groups. One group was fed from weaning with diet A (containing 6.2 ± 0.2 % of total fat, 23.2 ± 0.2 % of total protein, and 34.7 % of available carbohydrate) whereas the other group was fed with diet B (containing 3.1 ± 0.1 % of total fat, 21.0 ± 0.1 % of total protein, 47.8 % of available carbohydrate). Animals that received diet A exhibited higher spontaneous as well as hormone-evoked pancreatic flow and protein output as compared with those fed with diet B. In addition, the volume of the pancreatic secretion generated by rats fed with diet B was too small to allow any measurement of pancreatic constituents. Present findings show that diet composition greatly influences pancreatic secretion and suggest that the observed alterations in rats that received diet B may result from the difference in the fat content between the diets since the fat content of diet B was below the recommended values for standard rodent diets. Further the present study strongly supports that commercial diets should fulfill the recommended composition requirements to avoid alterations in physiological functions that would eventually reflect on medical research.