Females are markedly underinvestigated in the biological and behavioral sciences due to the presumption that cyclic hormonal changes across the ovulatory cycle introduce excess variability to measures of interest in comparison to males. However, recent analyses indicate that male and female mice and rats exhibit comparable variability across numerous physiological and behavioral measures, even when […]
Abstract Many controllable factors negatively impact fetal development, underscoring the importance of early pregnancy detection and identification of events that reliably predict potential complications. Clinically, core body temperature (CBT) is used to aid family planning and pregnancy detection. However, such temperature data typically are gathered in single, daily measurements. In animal studies, interventions or cell/tissue […]
Abstract Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF), an inducer of neurogenesis in the hypothalamus, has been known to cause a permanent fall of body mass in mice made obese by a fat-rich diet. In the present study, energetics of obese mice was followed during and after a 7-days long intracerebroventricular infusion of CNTF (720 ng/day) using an […]
Abstract Cholecystokinin-octapeptide (CCK-8) has been shown to possess an acute thermogenic and hyperthermic action when given intracerebroventricularly in slightly restrained rats. To substantiate the febrile nature of that hyperthermia freely moving animals should be used and together with body core temperature, at least one behavioral parameter, such as general activity, should also be recorded. In […]
Abstract Male C57BL/6J mice deficient in nitric oxide synthase (NOS) genes (knockout) and control (wild-type) mice were implanted intra-abdominally with battery-operated miniature biotelemeters (model VMFH MiniMitter, Sunriver, OR) to monitor changes in body temperature. Intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 50 microg/kg) was used to trigger fever in response to systemic inflammation in mice. To induce […]
Abstract Previously it was reported that a control saline solution infused into the anterior hypothalamic, preoptic area (AH/POA) can induce an intense fever from an unknown source. To avoid such fevers, cerebral dialysis has been proposed as an alternative procedure, although in nearly all experiments on the febrile response, a nonpyrogenic solution is injected, not […]