Change in heat loss as a part of adaptation to repeated cold exposures in adult and aged male C57BL/6J mice.
Previous studies have shown that adult mice increase cold-induced heat production as a result of repeated exposures to cold, but that aged mice do not. The objective of the present study was to investigate changes in heat loss during repeated cold exposures in adult and aged C57BL/6J mice. Mice were partially restrained for three hours at 6 degrees C, three times at one-week intervals. Dry heat loss was inferred from measurements of differential temperature between the incoming and outgoing air in the experimental chamber. During the first cold exposure, aged mice showed less heat loss (both total and adjusted for body temperature) than adult animals, suggesting greater peripheral vasoconstriction in aged mice. With repeated cold exposures, both age groups showed increased heat loss, but the aged mice showed greater increase of heat loss, so that by the third cold stress test, no significant differences in heat loss between adult and aged mice were observed. The increase of heat loss after repeated cold exposures in aged mice might reflect a lesser peripheral vasoconstriction, serving to reduce the possibility of tissue necrosis in the cold.
Shefer
V I
VI
Laboratory of Behavioral Sciences, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
Talan
M I
MI
D000064:Acclimatization; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001830:Body Surface Area; D001833:Body Temperature Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D003080:Cold Temperature; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL