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First published online August 28, 2009
Journal of Experimental Biology 212, 2908-2917 (2009)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2009
doi: 10.1242/jeb.028886

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Endurance capacity of mice selectively bred for high voluntary wheel running

Thomas H. Meek, Brian P. Lonquich, Robert M. Hannon and Theodore Garland, Jr^*

University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA

^* Author for correspondence (tgarland{at}ucr.edu)

Accepted 3 June 2009

Mice from four lines bred for high voluntary wheel activity run 3-fold more revolutions per day and have elevated maximal oxygen consumption during forced treadmill exercise, as compared with four unselected control (C) lines. We hypothesized that these high runner (HR) lines would have greater treadmill endurance-running capacity. Ninety-six mice from generation 49 were familiarized with running on a motorized treadmill for 3 days. On days 4 and 5, mice were given an incremental speed test (starting at 20 m min^–1, increased 1.5 m min^–1 every 2 min) and endurance was measured as the total time or distance run to exhaustion. Blood samples were taken to measure glucose and lactate concentrations at rest during the photophase, during peak nightly wheel running, and immediately following the second endurance test. Individual differences in endurance time were highly repeatable between days (r=0.79), and mice tended to run longer on the second day (paired t-test, P<0.0001). Blood glucose following the treadmill test was low for all animals (53 mg dl^–1) and lactate was high (6.5 mmol l^–1), suggesting that exhaustion occurred. The HR lines had significantly higher endurance than the C lines (1-tailed P<0.05), whether or not body mass was used as a covariate in the analysis. The relationship between line means for wheel running and treadmill endurance differed between the sexes, reinforcing previous studies that indicate sex-specific responses to selective breeding. HR mice appear to have a higher endurance capacity than reported in the literature for inbred strains of mice or transgenics intended to enhance endurance.

Key words: artificial selection, endurance, exhaustion, experimental evolution, genetics, glucose, lactate, locomotor activity, wheel running

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