Janowski Adam J, Berardi Giovanni, Hayashi Kazuhiro, Plumb Ashley N, Lesnak Joe B, Khataei Tahsin, Martin Ben, Benson Christopher J, Sluka Kathleen A
Department of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA.
Department of Physical Therapy, Human Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Physiol Rep. 2025 Feb;13(4):e70246. doi: 10.14814/phy2.70246.
Physical activity is commonly used for both measuring and treating dysfunction. While preclinical work has been historically biased towards males, the inclusion of both males and females is gaining popularity. With the increasing inclusion of both sexes, it is imperative to determine sex differences in common behavioral assays. This was a secondary analysis of healthy naïve mice to determine baseline sex differences in three activity assays: voluntary wheel running (32 mice), forced treadmill running (178 mice), and open field (88 mice). In voluntary wheel running, females showed greater distance run, running time, bout duration, and speed, but no difference in total bouts. In forced treadmill running, females showed greater time to exhaustion, but no difference in maximum speed attained. In open field, males showed greater active time but no difference in distance and speed over 30 min; however, male mice showed a downward trajectory in distance and speed over the final 20 min of testing, whereas females did not. These data suggest that male mice demonstrate comparable activity intensity to female mice but do not match females' duration of activity, especially for volitional tasks. Researchers utilizing these assays should account for sex differences as they could mask true findings in an experiment.
身体活动通常用于测量和治疗功能障碍。虽然临床前研究在历史上一直偏向于雄性，但纳入雄性和雌性的研究越来越普遍。随着两性纳入研究的增加，确定常见行为试验中的性别差异势在必行。这是一项对健康未接触过实验的小鼠进行的二次分析，以确定三种活动试验中的基线性别差异：自愿轮跑（32只小鼠）、强迫跑步机跑步（178只小鼠）和旷场试验（88只小鼠）。在自愿轮跑中，雌性小鼠表现出更长的跑动距离、跑步时间、单次运动持续时间和速度，但总运动次数没有差异。在强迫跑步机跑步中，雌性小鼠表现出更长的力竭时间，但达到的最大速度没有差异。在旷场试验中，雄性小鼠表现出更长的活动时间，但在30分钟内的跑动距离和速度没有差异；然而，雄性小鼠在测试的最后20分钟内跑动距离和速度呈下降趋势，而雌性小鼠则没有。这些数据表明，雄性小鼠表现出与雌性小鼠相当的活动强度，但在活动持续时间上不如雌性小鼠，尤其是在自愿任务中。使用这些试验的研究人员应考虑性别差异，因为它们可能掩盖实验中的真实发现。
