Muscularity as a function of species, sex and age in small mammals.
The size of individual skeletal muscles in mammals is well known to change with the degree of mechanical loading imposed on the muscle.  Less clear has been the effect of changes in loading of the whole organism on size of the total skeletal musculature.  Pitts and coworkers have provided valuable insights by dissection and weighing of the skeletal musculature of animals subjected to various chronic centrifugation, exercise and dietary regimens, and their recent findings are reported at this meeting.  However, questions remain.  Independently, our laboratory several years ago embarked on a systematic definition of body composition and energy metabolism changes as a function of sex and age in 5 species of small laboratory mammals, the mouse, hamster, rat, guinea pig and rabbit.  Six animals of each sex were examined in 8 age cohorts ranging from 1 to 24 months for each of the 5 species.
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Environmental Physiology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley 94720, USA.
Rahlmann
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Smith
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D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000502:physiology; D003401:Creatine / Q000032:analysis*; D006224:Cricetinae; D005260:Female; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D024510:Muscle Development; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000254:growth & development; D011817:Rabbits; D051381:Rats; D012737:Sex Factors
D003401:Creatine