关键词: Wistar大鼠, 体质量, 正常值

Abstract: Objective To learn about the body weight and rate of body weight gain of Wistar rat during most of its life. Methods The control group of a combined chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity test included 60 male and 60 female Specific Pathogen-Free Wistar rats (4 weeks old). The rats were acclimated for 1 week prior to initiation of the test. The rats were dieted with conventional feed. The study duration was 104 weeks. Body weight were measured weekly for the first 13 weeks and once every 4 weeks thereafter. Results The body weight and rate of body weight gain of Wistar rats at 37 time points during their life from 5 to 109 weeks were reported. (1) With the increase of age of the rats, the body weight increased continuously; males and females reached their maximum body weight at 93 and 102 weeks, which were 755.7±103.4g and 515.4±96.6g, respectively; their body weight decreased thereafter. (2) The rate of body weight gain decreased with the increase of rat age; the negative rates were first observed at 68 and 82 weeks for males and females, respectively; the negative rate became more negative finally. Conclusions The data about the normal reference body weight and the rate of body weight gain of Wistar rats at 37 time points during their life from 5 to 109 weeks reported in this paper may further improve and supplement the existing literature on Wistar rats′ normal reference body weight; and provide some useful reference for its inter-laboratory comparison and for the relevant technical staffs.

Key words: wistar rat, body weight, normal reference value