Several rodent models of obesity have been shown to develop excessive adiposity only when voluntary cage ambulation is restricted. We have previously shown that mice lacking the sarco(endo)plasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase pump regulatory protein sarcolipin (Sln(-/-)), an uncoupler of Ca(2+) uptake, develop excessive diet-induced obesity under standard housing conditions. However, it is unclear w...

Physical activity reduces the incidence and severity of psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. Similarly, voluntary wheel running produces anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects in rodent models. The specific neurobiological mechanisms underlying the beneficial properties of exercise, however, remain unclear. One relevant pharmacological target in the treatment of psychiatri...

PURPOSE To determine whether voluntary exercise (wheel running) has the potential of relieving stress. METHODS In this study, restraint stress with or without voluntary wheel running was performed for mice housed in individual cages. A total of 21 ICR male mice were assigned into control (CON), restraint stress with voluntary exercise (RSVE), or restraint stress (RS) without voluntary exercis...

Background The antidepressant effect of physical exercise has been reported in several clinical and animal studies. Since serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine play a central role in depression, it is possible that the beneficial effects of physical exercise are mediated via monoamine pathways. This study investigates the effects of voluntary wheel running on the excitability of monoamine neu...

When rodents have free access to a running wheel in their home cage, voluntary use of this wheel will depend on the time of day. Nocturnal rodents, including rats, hamsters, and mice, are active during the night and relatively inactive during the day. Many other behavioral and physiological measures also exhibit daily rhythms, but in rodents, running-wheel activity serves as a particularly reli...

OBJECTIVE We examined whether chronic leptin treatment of diet-induced obese rats promotes or alleviates the susceptibility to continued high-fat feeding. Second, we examined if voluntary wheel running is beneficial in reducing the trajectory of weight gain in high-fat-raised leptin-resistant rats. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a standard diet or a high-fat diet for...

Backgrounds: The loss of dopamine-secreting cells and the decrease in the status of antioxidant is associated with incidents of Parkinson's disease. The purpose of the present study was to determine the protective effect of a 12- weeks voluntary wheel running (VWR) along with the injection of eriobotrya japonica flower extract (EJFE, 200 mg/kg body weight, 3 days a week) on cer...

There have been no systematic comparisons of skeletal muscle adaptations in response to voluntary wheel running under controlled loading conditions. To accomplish this, a voluntary running wheel for rats and mice was developed in which a known load can be controlled and monitored electronically. Five-week-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (10 rats/group) were assigned randomly to either a 1) sedenta...

Exercise improves many aspects of human health, yet many people remain inactive even when exercise is prescribed. We previously created a backcross (BC) between mice selectively bred for high levels of voluntary wheel running (VWR) and fixed for "mini muscle" (MM), a recessive mutation causing approximately 50% reduction in triceps surae mass. We previously showed that BC mice having the MM tra...