Features of albino rats and Wistar rats as biomodels for preclinical research

Background. In the experimental study of potential medicines, animal studies are of the greatest prognostic importance. Domestic authors performed most of the experimental toxicological work on rats of outbred colonies (mongrel (albino) and wistar). The variability of numerous literature data obtained over a long time range on the physiological parameters of mongrel rats and wistar rats indicates the need for their comparative characteristics in one study.

Aim. To evaluate the main indicators for wistar and albino rats used in assessing the acute and chronic toxicity of pharmaceutical compounds and to determine the physiological characteristics of the animals in these colonies.

Materials and methods. Female albino and wistar rats of the same age were used in the experiment. The animals were kept in the same conditions according to international ethical standards. The condition, behavior, body weight, peripheral blood parameters, feed intake, daily diuresis, neurological reactions, mass coefficients of internal organs were evaluated.

It was found that in wistar rats, body weight increases significantly more slowly, its weekly increase is ≈4–5 %, in Albino ≈10 %. The number of red blood cells and hemoglobin levels are significantly lower, the volume of red blood cells is larger, and the hemoglobin content is higher for Albino rats. For wistar, an increased level of anxiety in the open field test and a lower variability of the arithmetic mean error were demonstrated.

Conclusion. The features of the physiological parameters of the studied colonies of mongrel rats are within the reference intervals. The choice in favor of Albino rats or wistar rats in modeling preclinical experiments depends on the type and objectives of the study. when studying the neurotoxicity of drugs, the increased anxiety level of wistar rats should be taken into account.

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