Abstract
Indirect calorimeter is a powerful tool to monitor resting energy metabolism through the measurement of oxygen (O2) consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) production. From the measurement of VO2 and VCO2, the respiratory exchange ratio (RER) can be calculated to assess energy fuel utilization and energy expenditure (Evan et al., 2012). Previously, indirect calorimeter has been widely used in metabolic disease research in mice to reveal the potential roles of specific genes or treatments in regulating energy metabolism (for example: Bi et al., 2014; Feng et al., 2014). Here, we described a protocol to evaluate the resting energy metabolism of C57BL/6 mice during dark and light cycles using the Oxymax Open Circuit indirect calorimeter.
Keywords: Brown adipose tissue, Skeletal muscle, Oxygen consumption, Insulin resistance, Diabetes
Materials and Reagents
Equipment
Procedure
Representative data
Figure 7. O2 consumption, CO2 production, RER and Energy Expenditure of 3-month old C57BL6 mice during light and dark cycle. The daily rhythms of metabolic parameters were recorded under a 12 h-light (open bar) and 12 h-dark cycle (black bar) (Left). Data were presented as Means ± SE (n = 5) during light and dark cycle (right). *, p < 0.05; **, p < 0.01 analyzed by the Student’s t-test (comparison of mean values between the light and dark cycles).
Notes
References
If you have any questions/comments about this protocol, you are highly recommended to post here. We will invite the authors of this protocol as well as some of its users to address your questions/comments. To make it easier for them to help you, you are encouraged to post your data including images for the troubleshooting.