Obesity represents a major health issue, and Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of the fight to both understand the causes of obesity and develop treatments to combat metabolic disease. In order to effectively purse this research mission, Pennington has relied heavily on the study of mouse models of obesity using research core infrastructure that allows the specific assessment of energy balance via the simultaneous measurement of food intake, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation and physical activity. We currently have 16 funded NIH awards that depend on this equipment in some fashion. In order to continue this tradition of excellence, this S10 application seeks to upgrade and expand our capacity to support metabolic research by requesting funds to purchase a 32 cage Sable Promethion metabolic/indirect calorimetry chamber system. Our current metabolic chambers are at max capacity, require long wait times, and the older Oxymax system is functionally limited and practically beyond its life-expectancy. Research productivity is currently limited because demand outstrips the availability and capability of our metabolic chambers, our aging infrastructure increases the risk that eventual equipment failure will severely compromise the ability to execute funded research, our aging Oxymax system is both more stressful to the animals and functionally insufficient for many experimental goals. The purchase of a Sable Promethion system to replace the over 10 year old Oxymax would expand capacity, upgrade aging infrastructure, and allow novel science that is not currently possible with our current systems.
Delineating the regulation of energy balance requires effectively assessing energy intake, energy expenditure, substrate oxidation and physical activity. Pennington Biomedical Research Center has history of excellent in mouse metabolic research, but recent degradations in infrastructure have reduced both capacity and capability. This application requests the funding of a Sable Promethion system to replace aging equipment with a state of the art metabolic chamber system. This system will substantially improve our ability to conduct funded research which depends on metabolic analysis.
| Burke, Susan J; Batdorf, Heidi M; Martin, Thomas M et al. (2018) Liquid Sucrose Consumption Promotes Obesity and Impairs Glucose Tolerance Without Altering Circulating Insulin Levels. Obesity (Silver Spring) 26:1188-1196 |
