Testing Effects of Chronic Chemogenetic Neuronal Stimulation on Energy Balance by Indirect Calorimetry

The fundamental of neuroscience is to connect the firing of neurons to physiological and behavioral outcomes. Chemogenetics enables researchers to control the activity of a genetically defined population of neurons in vivo through the expression of designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drug (DREADD) in specific neurons and the administration of its synthetic ligand clozapine N-oxide (CNO) (Sternson and Roth, 2014). Using stimulatory Gq-coupled DREADD (hM3Dq) in mice, we showed that leptin receptor (LepRb)-expressing neurons in the preoptic area (POA) of the hypothalamus are warm-sensitive neurons that mediate warm-responsive metabolic and behavioral adaptations by reducing energy expenditure and food intake (Yu et al., 2016). We also used DREADD technology to test effects of chronic stimulation of POA LepRb neurons on energy expenditure, food intake, and body weight with the TSE indirect calorimetry system. Here we describe the detailed protocol of how we used indirect calorimetry to study the outcome of chronic stimulation of POA LepRb neurons. This protocol can be adapted to study long-term metabolic and behavioral consequences of other neuronal modulations, with possible modifications to the type of DREADD, duration of CNO treatment, or method of CNO delivery.