Abstract
Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is a thermogenic effector abundant in most mammalian infants. For multiparous species such as rats and mice, the interscapular BAT deposit provides both an emergency “thermal blanket” and a target for nestmates seeking warmth, thereby increasing the cohesiveness of huddling groups. Sex differences in BAT regulation and thermogenesis have been documented in a number of species, including mice (Mus musculus)–with females generally exhibiting relative upregulation of BAT. It is nonetheless unknown whether this difference affects the behavioral dynamics occurring within huddles of infant rodents. We investigated sex differences in BAT thermogenesis and its relation to contact while huddling in eight-day-old C57BL/6 mouse pups using infrared thermography, scoring of contact, and causal modeling of the relation between interscapular temperature relative to other pups in the huddle (TIS rel) and contacts while huddling. We found that females were warmer than their male siblings during cold challenge, under conditions both in which pups were isolated and in which pups could actively huddle in groups of six (3 male, 3 female). This difference garnered females significantly more contacts from other pups than males during cold-induced huddling. Granger analyses revealed a significant negative feedback relationship between contacts with males and TIS rel for females, and positive feedback between contacts with females and TIS rel for males, indicating that male pups drained heat from female siblings while huddling. Significant sex assortment nonetheless occurred, such that females made more contacts with other females than expected by chance, apparently outcompeting males for access to each other. These results provide further evidence of enhanced BAT thermogenesis in female mice. Slight differences in BAT can significantly structure the behavioral dynamics occurring in huddles, resulting in differences in the quantity and quality of contacts obtained by the individuals therein, creating sex differences in behavioral interactions beginning in early infancy.
Highlights
Small mammals such as rodents occupy thermal niches radically different from those of their larger mammalian relatives
In a recent study of C57BL/6 mice [27], we found that female pups were significantly warmer, on average, than their male siblings while both huddled together in response to a 20uC cold challenge on postnatal days 4 and 8 (PND4 and Postnatal day 8 (PND8))–a sex difference that has been reported in adult mice housed under standard laboratory conditions (e.g., [48,53,54])
We demonstrate the utility of Granger analysis [58,59] in the latter endeavor, revealing the presence of feedback relationships between contact and brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis during cold challenge that vary in sexdependent manner
Summary
Small mammals such as rodents occupy thermal niches radically different from those of their larger mammalian relatives. House mice (Mus musculus), for example, have far more labile core body temperatures [1,2,3] and prefer warmer ambient conditions [4,5,6] than do humans. Group-housed mice spend a great deal of time huddling under standard laboratory conditions [14], which are thermally more comfortable to humans than to mice [4,5,6]. Species across diverse taxa–from penguins to bats to rats and marmots– rely upon social thermoregulation when facing varying degrees of cold [15]. At once, producers and consumers of metabolic heat, the thermal and metabolic characteristics of a given species can, theoretically, significantly structure its social life (cf [16,17,18])
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