The program project is aimed at understanding how diets high in fat lead to increased levels ofdefended body weight. Our overall strategy is to explore a model of dietary obesity at many levels andfrom multiple perspectives. The Animal & Physiology Core consolidates and centralizes the production ofobese rats and their various control groups for each of the specific projects. Specifically, this coregenerates EVERY animal that is used in each of the specific projects and thereby assures that eachexperiment enjoys animals that have been treated in an identical manner, thus allowing comparisonsacross time, cohorts and projects. There are four primary goals of this core. 1) To generate requisiteanimals for the individual projects in any of the various dietary groups described in detail in theintroductory section to the proposal. These groups include rats on a low-fat, semi-purified butter oil-baseddiet (LF), rats on a matched high-fat, semi-purified diet (HF), rats receiving the HF diet but with caloriesmatched (pair-fed) to intake of the LF rats (PHF), rats receiving the LF diet and food-restricted by thesame amount as the PHF: pair fed rats (PLF), and rats with pelleted chow (CHOW). The Core alsogenerates control rats on HF and LF diets based on olive oil as opposed to butter oil. 2) To developnovel or modified rat surgical techniques as required by each of the individual projects. 3) To carry outexperiments on behavioral aspects associated with the palatability and meal pattern analysis as wellenergy expenditure measurements to determine how the different fatty acids influence consumption andbehaviors associated with body weight regulation. 4) To carry out carcass analysis for body lipid contenton subjects from each of the individual projects. This includes non-invasive (i.e., NMR readings) andterminal assessments for the entire carcass or specific anatomical subareas (e.g., subcutaneous fat).Lastly, The Animal & Physiology Core will carry out certain pilot or other experiments necessary forcreating data that are relevant and critical to the other projects. The Animal/Physiology Core personnelare already facile with all of the techniques required to date that are used to characterize the model;consequently the personnel are already well-trained and the protocols are all in place to efficientlyaccomplish the goals of this essential core.
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