La Trobe scientists have developed an animal model that for the first time mimics how the combination of fat, salt and sugar in modern fast-food diets can cause cardiovascular issues like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes in women.
Female animal models have historically been excluded from preclinical studies because they are more resistant to diet-induced conditions and do not accurately reflect the clinical manifestations of metabolic syndrome observed in women.
Senior research lead Dr Maria Jelinic said the La Trobe model was a replicable tool that could spark discoveries in women’s cardiovascular health globally.
“This is the first time we have the correct diet composition to trigger reactions in both male and female subjects,” Dr Jelinic said.
“This is a major discovery for women’s health. It could potentially facilitate many major advances.”
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of global mortality.
When patients develop a cluster of metabolic abnormalities (for example, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol or obesity), this is known as metabolic syndrome, a condition that affects both sexes.
But there is less knowledge about the metabolic abnormalities that lead to the disease in women, partly because females have been under-represented in biomedical research.
The La Trobe discovery, revealed in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, is the first to overcome this gap by modelling similar metabolic abnormalities in both male and female subjects using a high-fat, high-salt and high-sugar (HFSS) diet.
This innovative tool will help identify new targets for therapies tailored to reduce organ damage in patients with metabolic abnormalities, including abdominal obesity, hyperglycaemia, insulin resistance and high blood pressure.
“About 35 per cent of Australian adults have metabolic syndrome, regardless of their gender. Therefore, excluding females in preclinical studies neglects a significant portion of the clinical population,” said research junior lead, Dr Vivian Tran.
“Historically, sex differences in the development of metabolic syndrome have been underexplored, leading to treatments that may not be equally effective for both sexes. It is crucial to study both sexes to develop therapies that benefit all patients with metabolic abnormalities.”
The biomedical sector has shifted to place greater focus on including female subjects in research.
Many scientific journals now require studies to include both sexes, or provide justification for their exclusion.
More recently, the Victorian Government announced one-year grants to support research that explores the influence sex or gender has on disease or conditions.
DOI: 10.1096/fj.202401871R
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