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Updated: Oct 31, 2025
Assessing Whole-Body Lipid-Handling Capacity in Mice
Published on: November 24, 2020
Hyperlipidemia Influences the Accuracy of Glucometer-Measured Blood Glucose Concentrations in Genetically Diverse
Lisa J Shi1, Xiwei Tang2, Jiang He1
1Department of Radiology and Medical Imaging, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Background:
Glucometers are widely used in animal research due to simplicity and ease of utilization, but their accuracy in blood glucose assessment for hyperlipidemic mice is unknown.
Methods:
Here, we compared blood glucose levels measured by a glucometer with plasma glucose levels measured by a standard enzymatic assay for 325 genetically diverse F2 mice derived from LP and BALB/c (BALB) Apoe-/- mice. Non-fasting glucose levels were measured before initiation of a Western diet and after 11 weeks on the diet.
Results:
On chow diet, lab-measured plasma glucose levels were 279.5 ± 42.6 mg/dl (mean ± SD), while blood glucose values measured by glucometer were 138.7 ± 16.6 mg/dl. The two measures had no correlation (R2 = 0.006, p = 0.167). On the Western diet, plasma glucose levels rose to 351.1 ± 121.6 mg/dl, while glucometer-measured blood glucose fell to 128.7 ± 27.9 mg/dl. The two measures showed a moderate correlation (R2 = 0.111, p = 3.1E-9). Lab-measured plasma glucose showed strong positive correlations with plasma triglyceride and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, while glucometer-measured blood glucose showed an inverse correlation with non-high-density lipoprotein levels on the chow diet.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that hyperlipidemia affects the accuracy of glucometers in measuring blood glucose levels of mice.
