Preclinical and Clinical Research on Oleogels

The research and development of oleogel formulations require preclinical experiments to predict effectiveness and safety prior to translating into clinical studies. In this chapter, we provide a general outline of preclinical studies in both cellular safety studies and laboratory animals. In vitro cellular safety studies, which precede animal studies, are directed to reveal possible adverse effects. In vivo system level whole animal studies in laboratory rodents enable discoveries on food intake, body weight regulation, and intestine processes such as stool consistency analysis. Rodent experimentation provides the possibility to alter the composition of diets, such as fat content (e.g., oleogels) and other nutrients. This chapter includes information on obesity-inducing diets and other obesity rodent models. Contemporary in vivo intraviral imaging technology provides means to monitor body composition in a longitudinal manner. Specific tissue anatomy such as deposits of adipose tissue in macroanatomical regions and other organs can be studied. A comparison of the imaging methods is provided to aid decision-making for choosing an appropriate imaging method. In this chapter, preclinical chemistry and histology cover blood lipid analysis, hepatic markers, and histological analysis, which offer a one-time-point targeted information on the state of these organs. Only a few preclinical and clinical studies on oleogels have been conducted, and these are reviewed at the end of this chapter.