Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 11, 2026
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Tracking Individual Running Metrics in Mice Using a Voluntary Wheel Running Protocol that Minimizes Social Isolation
Published on: April 18, 2025
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Mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel-running behavior conserve more fat despite increased exercise
Layla Hiramatsu1, Theodore Garland1
1Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Physiology & Behavior
|April 23, 2018
Summary
High Runner mice exhibit greater voluntary exercise and food intake than control mice, with both groups losing fat mass and gaining lean mass over six days. Individualized weight management strategies are suggested due to differing trait interrelationships.
Area of Science:
- Animal models of exercise physiology
- Genetics of energy balance
- Behavioral neuroscience
Background:
- Physical activity significantly impacts energy expenditure and body composition.
- High Runner (HR) mice, selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running, offer a model to study exercise effects.
- Understanding sex and genetic background influences on exercise response is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the effects of voluntary wheel running on food consumption and body composition in High Runner (HR) and control (C) mice of both sexes.
- To examine the interrelationships between physical activity, food intake, and body composition traits.
- To investigate potential sex-by-genotype interactions in response to exercise.
Main Methods:
- Comparison of wheel running, cage activity, food consumption, and body composition in HR and C mice over 6 days.
- Measurement of body mass, lean mass, and fat mass.
- Analysis using structural equation modeling to explore trait interrelationships.
Main Results:
- HR mice exhibited higher voluntary wheel running and food consumption compared to C mice, even after accounting for body mass and activity levels.
- All groups experienced lean mass gain and fat mass loss over 6 days of wheel access.
- HR mice lost less fat mass than C mice, leading to similar fat mass across groups by study's end.
- No significant sex-by-linetype interactions were detected for the measured traits.
Conclusions:
- Voluntary exercise influences energy balance, with High Runner mice showing distinct responses in food intake and fat loss compared to controls.
- Complex phenotypic architecture and interrelationships among traits vary by genetic background and sex.
- These findings suggest that personalized recommendations for weight management, diet, and exercise may be necessary.
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