Metabolism Core

Measurement of food intake, energy expenditure and activity using metabolic cages

Metabolic cages (TSE Systems; photo) will be used in awake mice to simultaneously measure energy expenditure, physical activity, indirect calorimetry, and food/water intake. The experiment non-invasively measures O² consumption and CO² production in individual mice using metabolic chambers and calculates the respiratory exchange ratio to reflect energy expenditure. The metabolic cages will also be used for the quantitative measurement of horizontal and vertical movement (XYZ-axis) as an index of physical activity and food/water intake over a given period of time (typically 3 days).