Study of the Application of Sprague-Dawley Rats for Disease Research Based on Hematological Parameters

This work aimed to obtain hematological parameters of Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats with different ages and genders, which supports the application of SD in drug screening, disease diagnosis, and treatment research. 26 hematological parameters of SD rats with ages of 3-12-21-week-old were obtained, 12-week-old were the least discrete, 3-week-old were obviously clustered together. White blood cell count (WBC), Mononuclear cell count (MONO), Platelet (PLT) and Platelet count (PCT) were significantly discrete at all weekly ages, while Mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC), High fluorescence intensity reticulocyte ratio (HFR), and Red blood cell distribution width-CV value (RDW-CV) were relatively clustered. The LYMPH (%), HFR (%), HCT (%), MCV, NEUT, MONO, RET (%), RDW-CV (%), and MCHC have a significance in different ages, as well as HCT (%), RBC, RDW-CV (%), RDW-SD in different genders. In conclusion, 12 weeks old SD rats should be selected as far as possible when testing hematological parameters, and 3 weeks old rats should be used only for adolescent related diseases research; gender is a great important factor in hematological parameters; MCHC, HFR and RDW-CV may be a marker in disease model of SD rat. These data will provide useful clinical indices for disease research of SD rat.