The Comprehensive Laboratory Animal Monitoring System (CLAMS) is used in many pre-clinical studies. This non-invasive metabolic monitoring system is of particular interest to researchers concerned with metabolic problems, because the relationship between inspired oxygen and expired carbon dioxide sets the biochemical limit of the organism. The requested system is equipped with 16 rodent stations, generally enough to perform two side-by-side group measurements for statistical analyses that also negates temporal variability. The system also has several secondary functions such as; 1) food and water intakes, 2) three coordinates activity, 3) automated food access, 4) sleep detection, 5) running wheels, and 6) temperature and light control. All these features would make this system a necessary part of our goal to produce high quality data in a time and cost efficient manner. The functionality of this system will allow a large and prolific group of VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) cardiovascular investigators (Drs. Hammond, Roth, and Patel) as well as our colleagues in the nephrology department (Drs. Vallon and Rajasekaran) and in neuroscience (Tuszynski, Risbrough, and Head) the opportunity to expand their experimental capabilities dramatically.
Metabolic disease, for example diabetes, is an increasing health concern in the veteran population and effective therapies are somewhat limited. We need new therapies for the treatment/prevention of this disease, which often leads to cardiomyopathy, nephropathy, and neuropathy. More than 29 million Americans have diabetes and 86 million more Americans are at risk to develop the disease. Nearly 25 percent of our VA?s patient population are inflicted with diabetes, which also leads to blindness, end-stage renal disease and amputation. A VA diabetes trial (CSP 465) examined cardiovascular disease in nearly 1800 patients of which the death in nearly two-thirds of patients were those with diabetes. The CLAMS will allow our cardiovascular, nephrology, and neurology research groups to collect comprehensive metabolic information in their pre-clinical studies that can address the disease burden in our veteran population.
