The laboratory rat

Age and body weight matter

Authors

  • Asghar Ghasemi Endocrine Physiology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +982122432500, E-mail: sajad.jeddi@sbmu.ac.ir https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6867-2151
  • Sajad Jeddi Endocrine Physiology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3911-6620
  • Khosrow Kashfi Department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City University of New York School of Medicine, New York, NY 10031 USA. Tel: +1 212-650-6641, E-mail: Kashfi@med.cuny.edu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4060-7283

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2021-4072

Keywords:

age, animal experimentation, body weight, developmental stage, humans, laboratory animals, rat

Abstract

Animal experimentation helps us to understand human biology. Rodents and, in particular, rats are among the most common animals used in animal experiments. Reporting data on animal age, animal body weight, and animal postnatal developmental stages is not consistent, which can cause the failure to translate animal data to humans. This review summarizes age-related postnatal developmental stages in rats by addressing age-related changes in their body weights. The age and body weight of animals can affect drug metabolism, gene expression, metabolic parameters, and other dependent variables measured in animal studies. In addition, considering the age and the body weight of the animals is of particular importance in animal modeling of human diseases. Appropriate reporting of age, body weight, and the developmental stage of animals used in studies can improve animal to human translation.

Author Biographies

Asghar Ghasemi, Endocrine Physiology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Tel: +982122432500, E-mail: sajad.jeddi@sbmu.ac.ir

Asghar Ghasemi. ORCID iD. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6867-2151

Sajad Jeddi, Endocrine Physiology Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Sajad Jeddi. ORCID iD. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3911-6620

Khosrow Kashfi, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City University of New York School of Medicine, New York, NY 10031 USA. Tel: +1 212-650-6641, E-mail: Kashfi@med.cuny.edu

Khosrow Kashfi. ORCID iD. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4060-7283

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Published

2021-09-23

How to Cite

Ghasemi, A., Jeddi, S., & Kashfi, K. . (2021). The laboratory rat: Age and body weight matter. EXCLI Journal, 20, 1431–1445. https://doi.org/10.17179/excli2021-4072

Issue

Vol. 20 (2021)

Section

Review articles

License

Copyright (c) 2021 Asghar Ghasemi, Sajad Jeddi, Khosrow Kashfi

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