title: Identifying predictors of activity based anorexia susceptibility in diverse genetic rodent populations.
abstract: Animal studies are very useful in detection of early disease indicators and in unravelling the pathophysiological processes underlying core psychiatric disorder phenotypes. Early indicators are critical for preventive and efficient treatment of progressive psychiatric disorders like anorexia nervosa. Comparable to physical hyperactivity observed in anorexia nervosa patients, in the activity-based anorexia rodent model, mice and rats express paradoxical high voluntary wheel running activity levels when food restricted. Eleven inbred mouse strains and outbred Wistar WU rats were exposed to the activity-based anorexia model in search of identifying susceptibility predictors. Body weight, food intake and wheel running activity levels of each individual mouse and rat were measured. Mouse strains and rats with high wheel running activity levels during food restriction exhibited accelerated body weight loss. Linear mixed models for repeated measures analysis showed that baseline wheel running activity levels preceding the scheduled food restriction phase strongly predicted activity-based anorexia susceptibility (mice: Beta  =  -0.0158 (±0.003 SE), P<0.0001; rats: Beta  =  -0.0242 (±0.004 SE), P<0.0001) compared to other baseline parameters. These results suggest that physical activity levels play an important role in activity-based anorexia susceptibility in different rodent species with genetically diverse background. These findings support previous retrospective studies on physical activity levels in anorexia nervosa patients and indicate that pre-morbid physical activity levels could reflect an early indicator for disease severity.
authors.affiliation: Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Department of Neuroscience and Pharmacology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Eneda
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pjetri
authors.forename: Ria
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Haas
authors.forename: Simone
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Jong
authors.forename: Cigdem
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gelegen
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oppelaar
authors.forename: Linda A W
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Verhagen
authors.forename: Marinus J C
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Eijkemans
authors.forename: Roger A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Adan
authors.forename: Berend
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Olivier
authors.forename: Martien J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kas
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017849:Animals, Inbred Strains; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000032:analysis; D001835:Body Weight; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D006948:Hyperkinesis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D051379:Mice; D009043:Motor Activity; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers