Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Publication Date

4-21-2022

Faculty Mentor

Stephen C. Kolwicz

Abstract

Metabolic disease is typically studied in mouse models of diet-induced obesity. Throughout time, studies have been fairly limited to males of one mouse strain, since sex and strain differences are thought to impact the results. Having these limited study populations may influence the understanding of the effect of sex and genetic background on metabolism. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine metabolic and behavioral differences in short-term feeding of a high fat diet in two popular strains of female mice. Over the course of 6 weeks, female FVB/N (FVB, n=20) and C57BL/6-Ncrl (C57, n=20) mice were fed a Western Diet (WD; 40% calories from fat) or standard chow diet (13% calories from fat). Body weight was measured at weekly intervals and the Open Field Test (OFT) was administered at baseline and 6 weeks to assess behavioral and activity related changes. The OFT consists of a circular arena, where mice were observed for 10 minutes using a video tracking software system to determine distance, speed, and motion. Tissues and blood were harvested after the 6-week feeding period. Overall results identified important strain differences in response to a short-term high fat diet in female mice.

Comments

Presented as part of the Ursinus College Celebration of Student Achievement (CoSA) held April 21, 2022.

The downloadable file is a research poster.

Also presented at the Experimental Biology (EB) Conference in Philadelphia on April 5th, 2022.

Restricted

Available to Ursinus community only.

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