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Monitoring body temperature and energy expenditure in freely-moving laboratory mice remains a powerful methodology used widely across a variety of disciplines-including circadian biology, sleep research, metabolic phenotyping, and the study of body temperature regulation. Some of the most pronounced changes in body temperature are observed when small heterothermic species reduce their body temperature during daily torpor. Daily torpor is an energy saving strategy characterized by dramatic reductions in body temperature employed by mice and other species when challenged to meet energetic demands. Typical measurements used to describe daily torpor are the measurement of core body temperature and energy expenditure. These approaches can have drawbacks and developing alternatives for these techniques provides options that can be beneficial both from an animal-welfare and study-complexity perspective. First, this paper presents and assesses a method to estimate core body temperature based on measurements of subcutaneous body temperature, and second, a separate approach to better estimate energy expenditure during daily torpor based on core body temperature. Third, the effects of light exposure during the habitual dark phase and sleep deprivation during the light period on body temperature dynamics were tested preliminary in fed and fasted mice. Together, the here-published approaches and datasets can be used in the future to assess body temperature and metabolism in freely-moving laboratory mice.

Original publication

DOI

10.1007/s00360-024-01554-4

Type

Journal article

Journal

J Comp Physiol B

Publication Date

06/2024

Volume

194

Pages

369 - 381

Keywords

3R’s, Body compartments, Intraperitoneal, NC3R, Telemeter, Telemetry, Animals, Energy Metabolism, Sleep Deprivation, Mice, Body Temperature, Fasting, Male, Light, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Torpor, Body Temperature Regulation, Circadian Rhythm