Nutritional influences on in vitro splenic lymphocyte proliferation in Psammomys obesus (Rodentia Gerbillidae).

The standard laboratory diet administered to sand rat (Psammomys obesus) induces the following physiological and immunological changes: hyperglycemia and hypercholesterolemia involving mainly the free fraction of cholesterol, with an elevation of high-density-lipoprotein levels and a decrease in B and T splenic lymphocyte proliferation in the presence of different mitogens PHA-P, Con A and LPS. These results demonstrate the important modification that could be induced in sand rat by the standard laboratory diet as compared with natural diet, and thus the sand rat (P. obesus) appears to be an interesting model for studies on experimental diabetes mellitus.