Whether it works, and on what
A compound or a diet can change what an animal is made of without changing its weight much. A fat loss can be hidden by a gain in lean mass, or the other way round. Reading fat mass, lean mass and free fluid separately shows what changed, how fast, and whether the lean tissue was preserved.
Where it is used
- Anti-obesity and anti-diabetic drug candidates
- Dietary and nutritional interventions
- Studies of energy metabolism
- Safety questions, such as whether a compound causes loss of lean mass
Typical tasks are finding the effective dose, following how quickly the effect appears, and checking that the effect is on fat and not on muscle.
Reading the effect early
Because the same animals are scanned repeatedly, the effect of each dose can be followed in time, and the dose-response relationship is read from the change in fat mass of each animal.
What it adds
- Separate results for fat, lean mass and free fluid
- Early detection, before the body weight changes
- No anaesthesia and no radiation, so scans can be repeated
- A short scan, so many animals can be measured in a day
Points that matter in practice
- Free fluid can change with a treatment, for example through dehydration, so read it together with the lean mass
- Keep the calibration, the handling and the timing the same for all groups, and blind the operators where possible
- For research use only. The results describe animals, not patients
From your study to a routine
Describe your compounds and your study design. MSY Consulting helps you plan the scanning schedule and the calibration, and trains the people who will run the scans.
Let's talk about your application
Send an email describing your instrument and your application, and you will get a reply.
contact@msyconsulting.euMSY CONSULTING SAS · Wissembourg, France · LinkedIn