Multiphasic growth curve analysis in mice.

Growth curves of mean body weights were compared to those of individual weights when fitted to data of male and female mice using monophasic (logistic) and triphasic growth functions. Goodness-of-fit was determined by residual variances and Durbin-Watson statistics. These criteria suggest that the triphasic function, with smaller and less correlated residuals, describes the data better than the monophasic function. For the triphasic function, residual variances were higher when fitting individual weights than mean weights. Males had higher residual variances than females. Auto-correlation was negligible when fitting individual weights for males and for females. Parameters of the triphasic function were higher when fitting curves of individual weights than curves of mean weights; differences between curves within sex were small. Parameters were similar for males and females, especially in the first phase of growth. Half asymptotic weights for the second and third phases were higher for males than for females. From these results, it should be clear that using a multiphasic function to describe growth curves in mice provides greater insight for understanding the biology of growth.