I am a research scholar , conducting research on antidiabetic potential of herbal compounds. I have found that in vivo testing of anti diabetic drugs are mostly done on male wistar rats. So, could any one please tell me why.
Hello Sir,
The reason behind the researcher avoid female subjects is because of its hormones fluctuation during the reproductive cycle. This hormones fluctuation may influence your results. You donot have this problem with male rats because they have more stable hormonal status. Furthermore, male rats tend to develop more pronounced insulin resistance whilst females show a greater loss of insulin release and beta cell mass. Therefore. Most of studies are done with males.
Good luck
Dharmendra Arya
Hello Sir,
The reason behind the researcher avoid female subjects is because of its hormones fluctuation during the reproductive cycle. This hormones fluctuation may influence your results. You donot have this problem with male rats because they have more stable hormonal status. Furthermore, male rats tend to develop more pronounced insulin resistance whilst females show a greater loss of insulin release and beta cell mass. Therefore. Most of studies are done with males.
Good luck
Dharmendra Arya
With male rats, there will be little or no hormonal interference in the course of the study.
female rats suffer from change in immunity (hypo), hormonal level, and metabolism during MC and during pregnancy
A good question indeed!
In addition to the comments above, male rodents can also have more severe diabetic complications than female rodents, and are sometimes chosen for this reason. We see this in male mice for diabetic kidney disease for example and, although I do not use Rat models myself, there seems to be some evidence for a similar effect in Wistar rats too from a quick search. A number of studies in Wistar rats have also shown a protective effect with female hormones on the development of kidney disease. So if you are trying to demonstrate pathology then the males are more robust here.
Further, in terms of diabetes itself, this study below is quite interesting in comparing the effects of male and female hormones in Wistar rats after STZ induced diabetes. Importantly, the female rats had lower survival rates than males, which would make the males more attractive for longer term drug study design. Article Sexual dimorphism in insulin sensitivity and susceptibility ...
This was also why we preferred male to female macaques. But the females do much better after fetal neurosurgery with vaginal birth than males, both in terms of survival and recovery of function. Any thoughts on why?
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