title: Hyperactive when young, hypoactive and overweight when aged: connecting the dots in the story about locomotor activity, body mass, and aging in Trpv1 knockout mice.
abstract: We have recently found that, at a young age, transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (Trpv1) knockout (-/-) mice have a higher locomotor activity than their wild-type littermates (+/+). We have also found that, with age, Trpv1(-/-) mice become substantially heavier than Trpv1(+/+) controls, thus forming a paradoxical association between locomotor hyperactivity and overweight. The present study solves this contradiction. By using two experimental paradigms, we show that aged Trpv1(-/-) mice have not an increased, but a decreased, locomotor activity, as compared to age-matched Trpv1(+/+) controls. We also confirm that aged Trpv1(-/-) mice are overweight. We conclude that TRPV1 channels are involved in the regulation of both general locomotor activity and body mass in an age-dependent manner.
authors.affiliation: Systemic Inflammation Laboratory (FeverLab), Trauma Research, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, Phoenix, AZ 85013, USA.
authors.forename: Samuel P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Wanner
authors.forename: Andras
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Garami
authors.forename: Andrej A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Romanovsky
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D015992:Body Mass Index; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D050177:Overweight; D050916:TRPV Cation Channels / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D050916:TRPV Cation Channels; C494484:TRPV1 receptor