Indiana Swine Core

Overview

The central function of the Indiana Diabetes Research Center (IDRC) Swine Core (a Regional/Shared Resource Core) is to reduce barriers to the use of Ossabaw swine, a unique animal model that closely approximates human metabolic syndrome (MetS) and progression to type 2 diabetes. Providing this animal resource enables testing of numerous hypotheses about the integrated, in vivo pathogenesis and long-term complications of MetS and type 2 diabetes and provides tissues for studies of cellular and molecular mechanisms.

Services

The Swine Core is a unique resource of IU School of Medicine and Purdue University and serves as a regional and national shared resource core of the International Development Centre (IDRC). Under the direction of Michael Sturek, PhD, chair of cellular and integrative physiology, this core utilizes a novel breeding colony of Ossabaw swine with metabolic syndrome and long-term complications, most notably cardiovascular disease. In addition, the core provides swine maintenance (glucose tolerance tests, body composition, glucose clamp studies, and imaging studies), characterization of cardiovascular disease (intravascular ultrasound, blood flow velocity, microvascular studies), and tissues (both banked and fresh) for analysis ex vivo.