Differential effects of 5-HT3 receptor antagonist on lipid profile in spontaneously hypertensive rat and chromosome 8 congenic strain.

OBJECTIVES: Ondansetron is an antagonist of 5-HT3 receptors mostly used as an antiemetic yet known to modulate metabolism and appetite. We tested the metabolic effects of ondansetron in newly derived congenic rat strain, carrying limited chromosome 8 regions of (PD) Brown Norway (BN) and polydactylous (PD) strain origins (including variant serotonin receptor Htr3b gene) within the genomic background of highly inbred model of metabolic syndrome, the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR).

METHODS: Adult, standard diet-fed male rats of SHR and the congenic SHR.(PD/BN)8 strains received ondansetron (2mg/kg body weight/day) or vehicle (n=6/strain/treatment) via oral gavage for 14 days while we followed their metabolic and morphometric profiles including glucose tolerance and triacylgycerol and cholesterol concentrations in 20 lipoprotein fractions.

RESULTS: We fine-mapped the chromosome 8 differential segment in the new SHR.(PD/BN)8 congenic strain: it comprises BN-derived region together with an adjacent 422kb stretch of PD origin. The SHR.(PD/BN)8 rats were heavier than SHR, the fasting glucose was significantly higher in ondansetron-treated congenic than in SHR (post-hoc Tukey's HSD p=0.02). Compared to SHR, ondansetron induced significantly more robust increases of cholesterol and triacylglycerol concentrations in total, chylomicron, VLDL and HDL particles in the SHR.(PD/BN)8 congenic strain.

CONCLUSION: We established new congenic model with distinct pharmacogenetic profile related to metabolic effects of ondansetron, facilitating thus the search for responsible genetic variants within the limited genomic region demarcated by the differential segment.