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

双能X射线吸收法(DXA)是精确量化全身成分的金标准方法，也就是肌肉、骨骼和脂肪的数量。我们要求一种适用于啮齿动物的小型动物DXA系统，使我们能够准确地测量啮齿动物一生中的几次身体成分。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志，同时也为我们提供肌肉和骨骼的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。这个系统将进一步支持我们的研究，为我们提供工具，探索肌肉生物学的变化如何影响啮齿动物的新陈代谢和身体组成。它还将使我们的团队能够探索饮食和体力活动等因素如何改变身体成分，潜在地减轻与年龄相关的骨骼和肌肉质量的损失。 基础科学，比如我们计划用这个系统做的工作，在研究中起着至关重要的作用。它为随后的应用科学和更多与健康相关的科学提供了知识基础。有了这个系统，我们将能够使用啮齿动物模型来更深入地了解在整个生命周期中改变肌肉、骨骼和脂肪质量的生理机制。这些信息可以被未来旨在优化人体组成的研究所利用，因此有可能使许多加拿大人受益。

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.