Bgp 15

Eight-week-old male ZDF rats (fa/fa) and their control, male lean rats (−/−), were purchased from Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (Wilmington, MA, United States). Animals were housed and cared for based on rules acclaimed by the Institutional Animal Care Committee of University of Debrecen in accordance with international regulations (ARVO (Statement for the Use of Animals in Ophthalmic and Vision Research) and the NIH guidelines), and all methodical protocols were approved by this same committee. Animals had free access to water and rodent chow, Purina 5008 diet.
ZDF animals were randomly assigned into two groups: ZDF control group (ZDF) and BGP-15-treated group (BGP). A third group was formed from the lean animals (lean). N = 10 in each groups. From the age of 16 weeks, all animals received oral gavage (through an orogastric feeding tube) once daily throughout the whole study, which lasted for 52 weeks (1 year). The treated group received 10 mg/kg BGP-15 in methyl-cellulose mucilage, while animals in the lean and ZDF groups were gavaged with vehicle only. Dose was based on our former study (Wachal et al., 2020 (link)). BGP-15 was obtained from Sigma-Aldrich-Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany).

All experimental protocols were approved by the local Ethics Committee of the University of Debrecen (12/2022 DEMÁB, August 12, 2022), and the animals received humane care in accordance with the “Principles of Laboratory Animal Care” by EU Directive (citation). Animal experiments are reported in compliance with the ARRIVE guidelines [65 (link)]. In total, 40 male adult Sprague-Dawley rats (493.77 ± 17.56 g, Charles River Laboratories Inc., Germany) were housed in a room with controlled temperature and kept under a 12/12 h dark/light cycle. A 2-week adaptation period was provided before the initiation of the treatments. BGP-15 (Sigma-Aldrich-Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany) was dissolved freshly in saline before oral gavage or intravenous (i.v.) bolus administration (depending on the study protocol). Myocardial injury was induced by isoproterenol (Sigma-Aldrich-Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), dissolved freshly in saline. For antibiotic prophylaxis and postoperative care, cefuroxime-sodium (50 mg/kg) was used intraperitoneally. Metamizole-sodium (100 mg/kg) was administered on the first 5 postoperative days as analgesic therapy.