Improving Body Weight, Serum Albumin and Total Protein of Undernourished Rat Model after Milks-Based and Fish-Soy-Based RUTF Intervention

Abstract

Abstract Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) has been formulated to address severe acute malnourished (SAM) in children under five years old, but its efficacy in undernourished rat models should be assessed before human trials can be conducted. This research examined how RUTF with milk-based and fish-soy-based impacted body weight, serum albumin level, and total protein level in undernourished rats. Using a factorial randomized group design, 31 male Wistar rats were split into three intervention groups: control (standard diet), low protein (5%), and low protein energy (30%) diet restriction. After 21 days of inducing malnutrition, each group received randomly assigned milk-based or fish-soy-based RUTF. The findings revealed that both groups’ body weight, serum albumin, and total protein had significantly improved to normal ranges. Statistical analysis did not show significant differences between the two groups in terms of body weight (p = 0.904), serum albumin (p=0.645), and serum total protein (p=0.504). This study suggests that producing RUTF from local resources such as soybean and fish in Indonesia could improve the nutritional status of undernourished animal models, which can be further studied in human subjects.