Novel sedentary cage induced sedentariness in rats: evidence from relevant biomarkers

• Published in: BMC endocrine disorders 2022-11, Vol.22 (1), p.293-293, Article 293
• Main Authors: Alabi, Quadri K, Akomolafe, Rufus O
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Albumin; Animals; Anthropometric indices; Behavior; Bioavailability; Biomarkers; Blood pressure; Blood pressure, cardiometabolic syndromes; Body measurements; Body weight; Cardiovascular disease; Cardiovascular Diseases; Communicable diseases; Developing countries; Diabetes; Endothelin; Endothelin 1; Endothelins; Food; Food consumption; Glucose; Inflammation; Insulin; Interleukin 6; Interleukins; Laboratory animals; LDCs; Male; Mental health; Mortality; Nitric Oxide; Overweight; Physical fitness; Public health; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Risk factors; Sedentary behavior; Sedentary cage; Technological change; Tumor necrosis factor-α; Uric Acid; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1472-6823; 1472-6823
• DOI: 10.1186/s12902-022-01221-1

Sedentary behavior or physical inactivity is considered a foremost contributor to the rise in obesity and overweight and a risk factor for several non-communicable diseases. However, its effect on the etiopathogenesis of some diseases is underestimated in both developed and developing countries worldwide. The present study designed a novel sedentary cage with a view to achieving sedentariness in rats, and also investigated the effectiveness of the cage in achieving sedentariness by assessing some markers of cardiometabolic risks in Wistar rats. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups of six rats. Rats in Group 1 were the control. The sedentary groups were 4-hr. sedentary and 8-hr. sedentary. The sedentary rats were subjected to restrained movements for 4 and 8 hours daily in the sedentary cage for 3 months. Anthropometric indices, food consumption and blood pressure parameters of the rats were measured. Microalbuminuria and serum glucose, uric acid, albumin, nitric oxide, endothelin-1, insulin, inflammatory markers were also Measured. Results indicated significant increases in body weight, BMI, Lee index, food consumption, systolic and diastolic pressure and decrease in serum nitric oxide bioavailability in the 8-hr sedentary rats. There were also significant increases in serum glucose, uric acid, endothelin-1, insulin, CRP and microalbuminuria in the 8-hr. sedentary rats in comparison with the control. The interleukin-6 and TNF-α also revealed a significant increase in the 8-hr. sedentary rats compared with the control. However, there was no significant difference in cortisol level across all the groups. We concluded that the novel sedentary cage successfully caused sedentariness in the rats as evident by the alteration in the cardiometabolic health in the rats, especially the group that were made sedentary for 8 h.