title: Wide housing space and chronic exercise enhance physical fitness and adipose tissue morphology in rats.
abstract: The current cages commonly used in animal experiments can prevent rats from engaging in most forms of natural locomotion behaviors. These animals tend to exhibit sedentary habits. Here, we show that a combination of wide housing space and training exercise helps to reduce white adipose mass and to increase brown adipose mass. Thus, this combination is a useful strategy for truly enhancing the physical fitness of captive rats commonly used in exercise-related interventional studies and to maximize their welfare.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Applied Sport Physiology, School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Limeira, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro Paulo Menezes
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Scariot
authors.forename: Fúlvia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de Barros Manchado-Gobatto
authors.forename: Adriana Souza
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Torsoni
authors.forename: Marcio Alberto
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Torsoni
authors.forename: Ivan Gustavo Masselli
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: dos Reis
authors.forename: Wladimir Rafael
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Beck
authors.forename: Claudio Alexandre
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Gobatto
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D006799:Housing, Animal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
keywords: body composition; composition corporelle; conditions de logement; entraînement physique; housing conditions; rats; roue d’exercice; training exercise; wheel running