Variability of blood biochemical parameters and establishment of reference intervals in preclinical studies. Part 8: syrian hamsters
Authors:   Research and manufacturing company “Home оf Pharmacy”, Miroshnikov M.V. , Sultanova K.T. , Kovaleva M.A. , Makarova M.N. 
Published: February 2024

Biochemical parameters of blood serum are important parameters for assessing the health of laboratory animals. The Syrian Hamster is a widely used test system in animal experiments. They have unique anatomical and physiological features, such as optimal body size, large cheek sac, high reproduction rate and short life cycle, which together makes hamsters a convenient test system used in preclinical studies. This type of animal is used not only in the study of toxicological properties and assessment of pharmacological safety, but is also involved in various pharmacodynamic studies as a model organism for studying a wide range of pathological conditions associated with the immune response, respiratory system, carcinogenesis, metabolic disorders. During the study, reference intervals of the main biochemical parameters of the blood of Syrian hamsters were established. This procedure is necessary for an adequate understanding of the condition of animals in the experiment, assessment of the toxicity and safety of new pharmacological substances, control of the formation of model pathologies and evaluation of the effectiveness of pharmacological agents. The values used for the formation of reference intervals were obtained from intact animals for the time period June–December 2022 in Research and manufacturing company “Home оf Pharmacy”. The study included biological samples of 30 males and 30 females of Syrian hamsters. The age of the animals corresponded to the range of 6–8 weeks, the body weight of males and females was in the range of 100–115 grams. The study was carried out in compliance with the principles of the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrates Used for Experiments and Other Scientific Purposes and in accordance with the rules of good laboratory practice. The determination of the biochemical parameters of interest was carried out under the same conditions using generally accepted preanalytical and analytical methods. Blood sampling from animals was performed using a cardiac puncture. The following parameters were registered in animal serum: creatinine, urea, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, cholesterol, triglycerides, total protein, albumin, globulins, albumin/globulin ratio, glucose, total bilirubin. The obtained reference ranges of biochemical parameters were generally similar to the published data. Differences were found in urea, alkaline phosphatase, alanineaminotransferase, aspartateaminotransferase and glucose — the values were higher than the literature data. For an adequate interpretation of the experimental values obtained, an important aspect in preclinical studies is the establishment of intralaboratory reference intervals for the biochemical blood values of healthy animals in each research laboratory. This is due to the preanalytical and analytical characteristics of the analysis, the breed of animals and the conditions in which they are housed.