Visceral fat mass determination in rodent: validation of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and anthropometric techniques in fat and lean rats.

Background: Because abdominal obesity is predisposed to various metabolic disorders, it is of major importance to assess and track the changes with time of this specific fat mass. The main issue for clinicians or researchers is to use techniques for assessing abdominal fat deposition and its accumulation or changes over time, without sacrificing of experimental subjects. In the rat, techniques to investigate in-vivo visceral fat mass are lacking.