Environmental Health Monitoring Program (EHMP) of LARC

Routine environmental monitoring is the prime necessity to maintain a Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) facility. Monitoring the animals & its environment is important to control the contamination and outbreak of disease. Appropriate documentation, labeling, handling, time, source, collection, transport, processing & storage of samples are important to keep the sample integrity. The sampling process needs to be well coordinated with both the vivarium and lab team. Proper disposal should be maintained throughout the sampling process. The animal holding rooms are monitored for both the microbial contamination and keep the husbandry, washing area of the facility free from contamination

Animal Health Monitoring Program (AHMP) of LARC

Animal health monitoring is important to maintain the health of the animals used for research purpose. Maintaining healthy research animals is the prime requisite for best research outcomes. Health monitoring is performed as per the recommendation issued by the Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA)

ENDOTHELIAL NITRIC OXIDE ACTIVITY & BIOAVAILABILITY DURING OBESITY CONDITIONS

Obesity has been recognized as a pandemic and linked with several metabolic dysfunctions. One of the hallmarks in the onset of obesity is the development of hypertension coupled with endothelial dysfunction. (ED) A fundamental feature of ED is the reduced bioavailability of the key vasodilator, nitric oxide (NO), which has important vasoactive functions. Endothelial nitric oxide is significantly produced by the isoform endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) in the vascular wall. NO production is modulated by both physiological and pathophysiological environment. Several recent studies have reported the correlation of obesity with NO bioavailability and the endogenous inhibitor of eNOS, asymmetric dimethyl arginine (ADMA). This research aims to define the mechanisms that contribute to controlling eNOS activity and NO bioavailability during obesity conditions. In this study, eight week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to cafeteria diet for 16 weeks. Our findings show that body weight increased gradually with 44% of the CAF-fed group becoming obese (CAF-OB) and the remaining 56% becoming resistant to body weight gain (CAF-WR). Levels of plasma ADMA increased and serum nitrite concentrations were reduced in the CAF-OB group while the CAF-WR group had a decrease in plasma ADMA levels and an increase in serum nitrite concentrations. This reflects the interaction of ADMA as an endogenous inhibitor on the bioavailability of NO. In conclusion, CAF diet induces obesogenic effects leading to endothelial dysfunction in both weight gain and weight gain resistant groups.This project was funded by QU internal grants (QUST-CAS-SP-1/15-11)

Diagnostic Microbiology Laboratory Monitoring of LARC

Microbial free environment of a research facility is critical to maintain animal health. Establishing Microbiological Monitoring Program is mandatory to assure the quality of the system. Microbiological monitoring involves a set of microbial testing methods to detect, isolate and eliminate the harmful microorganisms to provide Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) environment within the facility. Microbial diagnostic practices should continuously monitor all the potential transmission routes to improve the methods and limiting the bioburden of clean areas of vivarium. Use of selective media and biochemical testing procedures can further identify the organisms to their genes & species leve

ANIMAL MODEL FOR CHILDHOOD OBESITY

Obesity has been recognized as a global health problem and linked with chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular syndromes, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers. Children exposed to high carbohydrate, high fat, energy dense food, are vulnerable to developing chronic health conditions. On long term exposure to low nutrient quality food, childhood obesity is associated with a higher chance of obesity in adulthood (Puhl , 2012). As the prevalence of obesity increases, it is imperative to develop animal models to understand the pre-existing metabolic milestones leading up to an obesogenic condition. It is with this goal that our team has developed a juvenile animal model replicating childhood exposure to a high carbohydrate, high fat diet. To develop our juvenile animal model, three week old male Sprague-Dawley rats were weaned and exposed to cafeteria diet for 10 weeks. Our findings show that body weight increased gradually with the treated group (CAF) becoming obese and reaching statistically significant weight gain. Furthermore, the lipid profile and plasma glucose levels of the CAF group showed increases in comparison to their standard chow fed counter parts. In conclusion, an exposure to a caloric overload induces obesogenic effects indicated by changes in body morphology, by increased abdominal adiposity, blood glucose levels and lipid profile.This study was funded by QUUG-CAS-BES-18/14-1

Quality of Drinking water in Qatar University Rodent vivarium

Edstrom watering system was newly installed and all the accessories were used for limited run, but gradually the system runs continuously and this improved the water quality . Moreover our microbial count of water samples are within the specific range and has negligible effect on health of research animals. The results shows that the water meets the international standards and safe for animal us

Animal Husbandry And Care

* Qatar University – Laboratory Animal Research Centre (LARC) is providing highest quality animal husbandry and care * LARC is Specific pathogen Free (SPF) facility with state of the art animal housing & supporting instruments * Animal husbandry and care is a vital and critical part of any modern vivarium * Care and management play a major role in keeping the lab animal’s health and diseases free condition * LARC has a housing capacity for 4000 mice and rat. Animals are maintained in Individual Ventilated Cage (IVC) system * LARC animal husbandry & veterinary care practice follows International standards & guideline

Cadmium-induced endothelial dysfunction mediated by asymmetric dimethylarginine.

Cadmium (Cd) is a naturally occurring toxic heavy metal with no known essential biological functions. Exposure to Cd increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by disrupting vascular homeostasis at the endothelium. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of chronic low-dose Cd on vascular structure and function. Fifty adult male Sprague Dawley rats were grouped and assigned to one of two treatments for 14 weeks. The control group received normal water for 14 weeks while the Cd-treated group received 15 mg Cd/kg B.W. as CdCl in water for 10 weeks. A subset of the Cd-treated group received 15 mg Cd/kg B.W. as CdCl in water for 10 weeks followed by 4 weeks of normal water. Results show an overall decline in vascular function and structure. Withdrawal of Cd treatment showed a considerable restoration of vascular structure and vasorelaxation function. Additionally, asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) bioavailability was found to be lowered over time. Interestingly, the expression of eNOS in the Cd-treated group was found to be significantly elevated during the exposure by more than 3-fold in comparison with that in the control group. This protein expression was similar to the control group after the withdrawal of Cd treatment. Taken together, the results suggest that ADMA, an eNOS inhibitor, may play a role in altering endothelial function in the presence of cadmium. In conclusion, the findings indicate that even at low doses, Cd leads to endothelial dysfunction mediated by ADMA.This work was supported by grant from Qatar University (QUCP-CAS-BES-15/16, 2016)

Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis and Their Impact on Biochemical and Inflammatory Profiles in Cafeteria Diet Fed Sprague Dawley Rats

Gut microbiota plays a major role in regulating the host metabolism and immune system. However, the structure of microbiome population is altered constantly by diverse factors including diet and environment. In particular, the gut microbiome dynamics is influenced by diet composition and their associated metabolites. Many studies in the recent past reported on diet induced dysbiosis in the gut microbiome, the modulating ratio between Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes plays a central role in maintaining the microbiome diversity in the gut and their abundance regulates obese conditions. Although there are several reports on gut microbial dysbiosis (Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes) at phylum level but only few of them highlight at the genera level. In the present study, we focused more on the impact of cafeteria diet (CAF) with respect to the gut microbiome richness at the genera level in SD rats. Three weeks old Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were fed with normal chow diet and cafeteria diet (CAF). After 10 weeks, serum, tissue samples (small intestine and cecum), cecum fecal and fecal pellet were collected. Biochemical analysis from serum, Gene expression analysis of pro-inflammatory markers from tissues and microbiome analysis from fecal samples were analysed. CAF diet fed rat in the present study developed obesity with increased body weight, few of them developed the resistance to weight gain (WGR) and these animal shows significantly increased abundance of Bacteriodetes-Prevotella compared to obese animals. This study suggests that detailed research needed to address the contribution of microbiota abundance at the genera level. We further explored the influence of diet induced microbiota changes on immune response; increase in Bacteroidetes leads to increased LPS and this in turn elicit immune reaction in the gut. Moreover, variation in gut microbiota also affects the gut barrier function (Tight junction proteins) and increase metabolic endotoxemia that leads to activation of innate immune system and low-grade inflammation. Further studies on these lines targeting the microbiota changes in the gut at the genera level is warranted to gain more knowledge

Biosecurity And Biosafety In LARC

* LARC is Specific Pathogen Free(SPF) facility * LARC is free of Specific list of Pathogens maintained by routine testing. * Bio security & Bio safety are main components to maintain the LARC facilit