The Veterinary Bioscience Institute Announces Its Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass Surgery Model in Rodents
Though research, development and careful manipulations, Dr. Baran has greatly improved the outcome in rodents undergoing gastric bypass surgeries. Dr. Baran’s post surgical survival rate is better than 99%.
Currently, the most effective therapy for the treatment of morbid obesity to induce significant and maintained body weight loss with a proven mortality benefit is bariatric surgery. Rats have always played a significant role as an animal model in obesity and diabetes studies. Recently, a Roux-en-Y gastric bypass rat surgery model has been developed as an obesity treatment model. However, studies have demonstrated that the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgical procedure not only leads to significant weight loss but it also leads to complete remission of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in 84% of patients. More interestingly, studies have demonstrated that the Type 2 Diabetes resolution occurs before the weight loss, suggesting that insulin sensitivity improves by a process that is independent of weight-loss. However the mechanism behind this remission is not well understood and the rat Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery model is being utilized to help understand this mechanism.
The rodent gastric bypass model is important as it closely mimics the weight loss experience in humans, and the model can be studied and manipulated in a controlled setting to infer results for other species. There are a wide variety of gastric bypass models available, and within each model, there are various standards for the surgical procedures. There are other significant considerations, such as the type and amount of pre and post surgical diet and the sex and strain of rodent used. Because of all of these variables, there is a need for standardization for accurate comparison and interpretation of physiologic results. Dr. Baran has refined this procedure, and all its components over last five years in rats and mice.
The Veterinary Bioscience Institute is thrilled to announce that Dr. Baran will now be teaching his successful surgical techniques, including Roux-en-Y-Gastric Bypass, vertical gastrectomy with duodenal switch, vertical gastrectomy, and adjustable gastric band at the Wake Forest University. This technique, since it is complicated and involved, will only be taught at small, private workshops at this point.
“The applications for this research model are innumerable, and there will be countless humans that benefit from the dispersal this technique and the research insights gained from its use,” states Dr. Baran.
“Dr. Baran is a meticulous surgeon with a reputation for excellence,” states Dr. Marcel Perret-Gentil, DVM, MS, University Veterinarian and Director for the Laboratory Animal Resources Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “I have personally observed Dr. Baran perform these difficult surgeries with incredible talent, but even if I hadn’t, if he has decided that his model is good enough to teach to other institutions, then I know it is a wonderful model."
The Veterinary Bioscience Institute is located at the Piedmont Triad Research Park in Winston Salem, NC. VBI is committed to the reduction, refinement and replacement of animal models in the laboratory animal field.
For more information on the workshops, please contact Dr. Szczepan Baran at szczepanb(at)vetbiotech(dot)com.