Effects of Early Exposure to Exercise on Mice Endurance

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Effects of Early Exposure to Exercise on Mice Endurance Azhand, B.A., Irvin, D.J., Ocampo, S., Horner, A. This experiment was conducted to investigate how mice that were exposed to exercise at different ages may differ in fitness or endurance at later ages. In this study we use mice from a long line of selected mice bred to be “High Runner (HR)” or “Control” from Dr. Ted Garland’s lab at UCR in order to determine the effects of genetics, age, and voluntary wheel exposure on endurance performance. 64 mice were acquired, consisting of 32 control and 32 HR line mice. Experimental groups were divided with HR and Control mice split evenly between 4 groups: Group A mice were exposed to wheel access from 3-6 weeks of age, Group B mice were exposed to wheel access from 6-9 weeks of age, Group C mice were exposed to wheel access from 9-12 weeks of age, and Group D mice had no wheel access at all. We would then train and test the mice following a standard procedure outlined in Meek et al. 2009. Wheel data obtained were analyzed in terms of distance ran, and number of pauses during their most active state. After all data were analyzed, it was determined that there was no statistical significance between wheel exposure and endurance testing, and that not a single wheel running value we analyzed had any effect on endurance.