Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) Rat Diet Update

August 16, 2010 - The obese male Zucker Diabetic Fatty (ZDF) rat plays a pivotal role in studying the cascade of physiologic events associated with the onset and treatment of type 2 diabetes (T2D). The female ZDF can also be used as a model for T2D, but unlike the male, the female requires dietary modification to induce the diabetic state.

Historically, females fed Research Diets (RD) C13004 diet starting at six weeks of age consistently developed diabetes by 12 weeks of age. The C13004 diet consists of a grain base supplemented with added fat. During the fall of 2007, several research groups reported to Charles River that female ZDF rats fed C13004 did not reliably develop diabetes.

Subsequently, Charles River learned that certain nutritional components of RD C13004 had been modified. After first ruling out environmental and genetic factors as possible causes of the loss of the diabetic phenotype, Charles River experimentally evaluated the RD C13004 diet and confirmed that it no longer reliably produced diabetes in the obese female. In order to determine an effective diet, Charles River performed a series of studies that indicated that the semi-purified diet RD 12468 reliably produced a diabetic phenotype, indicated by hyperglycemia and insulinopenia, in the female ZDF rat.

Charles River recommends that investigators consider utilizing RD 12468 to reliably induce a diabetic phenotype in the female ZDF rat. Alternatively, Charles River can provide preconditioned female ZDF rats fed RD 12468 upon request. 

To read the full technical sheet on this study, please click here.