Mueller Marissa, Tir Selma, Pothecary Carina, Meijer Elise, Brown Laurence, Foster Keiran, Vyazovskiy Vladyslav, Peirson Stuart, Molnár Zoltán
Physiology Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford Department of Physiology Anatomy and Genetics, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3PT, UK.
Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, University of Oxford Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 3QU, UK.
Wellcome Open Res. 2025 Jul 23;10:172. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.23850.2. eCollection 2025.
Accurately measuring activity and feeding is important in laboratory animal research, whether for welfare-monitoring or experimental recording. Quantification commonly involves manual pellet-weighing; however, this can physically disturb animals and cannot continuously assess both the amount and pattern of feeding over time. Improved means of food-intake measurement have been developed but can be costly and incompatible with many cage configurations.
We developed the a novel home-cage monitoring system which continuously records food-intake, food-seeking activity, and ambient light conditions in laboratory mice. After benchtop validations, we tested this device by recording from C57BL/6J control mice under 12:12h light:dark (LD) and constant darkness (DD) to measure circadian rhythms in feeding behaviour. We then recorded from mice having disturbed circadian rhythms (cryptochrome 1 and 2 double-knockouts, ), where irregular activity and feeding patterns were expected. Animals were individually housed with in Digital Ventilated Cages (DVC, Tecniplast) to measure home cage activity. After habituation, 48-hour and DVC recordings were collected and compared.
The accurately measured food-masses throughout benchtop and validation tests. Time-course feeding traces correlated well with DVC activity recordings, indicating that feeding reflects general cage locomotion in control and cryptochrome-deficient animals. In LD, data showed expected feeding/fasting cycles in control and cryptochrome-deficient animals yet reduced dark-phase feeding in cryptochrome-deficient mice. In DD, increased feeding during the subjective nighttime was maintained in control animals but abolished in cryptochrome-deficient mice. Surprisingly, cryptochrome-deficient animals exhibited ultradian feeding rhythms.
We validate the performance and value of monitoring home cage feeding using the . Here we show that cryptochrome-deficient animals have decreased food-intake in LD, diurnal arrhythmicity in DD, and ultradian rhythms in feeding behaviour. The provides a cost-effective, open-source, and user-friendly method of animal food intake and activity measurement.
在实验动物研究中，准确测量活动和进食情况至关重要，无论是用于福利监测还是实验记录。定量通常涉及手动称取颗粒饲料；然而，这可能会对动物造成身体干扰，并且无法持续评估随时间变化的进食量和进食模式。已经开发出了改进的食物摄入量测量方法，但成本可能很高，并且与许多笼子配置不兼容。
我们开发了一种新型的笼内监测系统，该系统可连续记录实验室小鼠的食物摄入量、觅食活动和环境光照条件。在进行了台式验证后，我们通过在12:12小时光照：黑暗（LD）和持续黑暗（DD）条件下记录C57BL/6J对照小鼠的情况来测试该设备，以测量进食行为的昼夜节律。然后，我们记录了昼夜节律紊乱的小鼠（隐花色素1和2双敲除小鼠）的情况，预计这些小鼠会出现不规则的活动和进食模式。将动物单独饲养在数字通风笼（DVC，Tecniplast）中以测量笼内活动。在适应期过后，收集并比较48小时的和DVC记录。
在整个台式和验证测试中，该系统都能准确测量食物质量。时间进程进食轨迹与DVC活动记录相关性良好，表明在对照动物和隐花色素缺陷动物中，进食反映了一般的笼内活动。在LD条件下，数据显示对照动物和隐花色素缺陷动物有预期的进食/禁食周期，但隐花色素缺陷小鼠的暗期进食减少。在DD条件下，对照动物在主观夜间的进食增加得以维持，但隐花色素缺陷小鼠则没有。令人惊讶的是，隐花色素缺陷动物表现出超日进食节律。
我们验证了使用该系统监测笼内进食的性能和价值。在这里，我们表明隐花色素缺陷动物在LD条件下食物摄入量减少，在DD条件下昼夜节律紊乱，并且进食行为具有超日节律。该系统提供了一种经济高效、开源且用户友好的动物食物摄入量和活动测量方法。
