How studying immunonutrients in early life: the neonatal rat model

Animal models are essential to increase the current knowledge about the immunomodulatory properties and mechanisms of particularnutrients in early life. Two aspects are crucial when choosing the animal model for this type of studies: the experimental feasibility of thedietary intervention and knowing which biomarkers can allow to examine whether the supplementation with the nutrient of interestaccelerates its immunological time course maturation. The suckling rat immunonutrition model satisÞes both aspects. Firstly, the beneÞtsof a short-gestation period animal such as the rat has shorter interventional periods, lower relative cost and better availability andmanageability in a laboratory setting than larger animals. Secondly, we have established the main changes on the systemic and mucosalimmune system development during rat suckling and therefore these elements can be used as target biomarkers for studying the insuenceof particular nutrients