UltraFocus DXA for longitudinal and non-invasive assessment of rodent body composition

双能x射线吸收测定法（DXA）是准确定量全身成分的金标准方法，即肌肉、骨骼和脂肪的数量。我们需要一种适合啮齿类动物的小型动物DXA系统，使我们能够在啮齿动物的一生中多次精确测量它们的身体组成。测量啮齿动物的肌肉、骨骼和脂肪的数量将为我们提供新陈代谢的生理标记，同时也为我们提供了肌肉和骨骼数量和质量的良好指示。我们目前正在使用小鼠模型，其中一个基因或多个基因被改变，以了解特定的细胞活动如何影响肌肉的功能。该系统将为我们探索肌肉生物学变化如何影响啮齿动物代谢和身体成分提供工具，从而进一步促进我们的研究。这也将使我们的团队能够探索饮食与体育活动相结合等因素如何改变身体成分，从而潜在地减轻与年龄相关的骨骼和肌肉质量损失。

Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is the gold-standard method for accurately quantifying whole-body composition, that is, the amount of muscle, bone, and fat. We are requesting a small animal DXA system, suitable for rodents, to allow us to accurately measure rodent body composition several times across their lifespan. Measuring the amount of muscle, bone, and fat in rodents will provide us with a physiological marker of metabolism while also giving us an excellent indication of muscle and bone quantity and quality. We are currently using mouse models where a gene or a number of genes are altered to understand how specific cellular activities can affect how a muscle functions. This system will further enable our research by providing us with the tool to explore how changes in muscle biology can influence rodent metabolism and body composition. It will also allow our team to explore how factors such as diet combined with physical activity alters body composition, potentially attenuating age-related losses in bone and muscle mass. Basic sciences, such as the work we plan on doing with this system, have a vital role in research. It provides the foundation of knowledge for the applied and more health-related science that follows. With this system, we will be able to use rodent models to gain a deeper understanding of the physiological mechanisms that alter muscle, bone, and fat mass across the lifespan. This information can be leveraged by future research aiming to optimize human body composition and thus has the potential to benefit many Canadians.