Abstract
The interplay between the circadian system and metabolism may give animals an evolutionary advantage by allowing them to anticipate food availability at specific times of the day. Physiological adaptation to feeding time allows investigation of animal parameters and comparison of food anticipation between groups of animals with genetic alterations and/or post pharmacological intervention. Such an approach is vital for understanding gene function and mechanisms underlying the temporal patterns of both food anticipation and feeding. Exploring these mechanisms will allow better understanding of metabolic disorders and might reveal potential new targets for pharmacological intervention. Changes that can be easily monitored and that represent food anticipation on the level of the whole organism are a temporarily restricted increase of activity and internal body temperature.
Highlights
The circadian timing system is a network of brain clocks and peripheral oscillators that enable mammals to adapt to recurring daily events and environmental changes, such as light/dark phases [1,2,3]
The protocol describes one of the approaches that are used by different research groups to study the adaptation to daytime feeding, seen as an uncoupling of feeding-related behaviour and behaviour that is a consequence of entrainment to the light-dark cycle
Food availability from zeitgeber time (ZT) 4 to ZT 12 is not a general consensus and it was chosen to maximize the window of food availability during the light phase
Summary
The circadian (circa—lat. approximately; dies—lat. day) timing system is a network of brain clocks and peripheral oscillators that enable mammals to adapt to recurring daily events and environmental changes, such as light/dark phases [1,2,3]. Restricting their access to food to a predetermined period with light and reducing the amount of food available will change their behaviour, as they need to adapt to new conditions [7,19,20] This adaptation, shown in different activity and internal temperature patterns, generally described as food anticipation, can be studied with wheel-running experiments and telemetrics [6,19]. Mice start showing food anticipation about two hours before feeding, so an interval starting two hours before feeding and until feeding can be analysed for changes in activity (Figure 2) and internal body temperature The induction of such behavioural changes can be exploited in multiple ways: (1) Determination of the players involved in molecular signalling, for example, with loss-of-function studies, (2) Studying temporal patterns of physiological and molecular changes, or (3) Restoring the lost behaviour by rescue experiments. It is possible to monitor behavioural and physiological changes in free-running animals
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