Treadmill Running Test

Purpose

To evaluate exercise endurance or to provide a forced exercise component to a model.

Experimental Design

Minimum number of animals: Recommend at least 5 animals per group being compared

Age at test: recommended at least 6 wks of age – younger may be possible if they are mobile

Sex: either

Time of Day: typically during the light phase, but may vary depending on study requirements

Columbus Instruments Exer3/6 Treadmill

Confirm setting for the treadmill and shocker (Recommend starting speed @6, Shocker Repetition Rate @3, Intensity @9)
Preclean the treadmill using RTU disinfectant
Weigh/record mice one cage at a time, placing each mouse in its assigned chamber immediately after weighing.
Record mouse IDs and weights
Place animal in treadmill (treadmill should be ‘stopped’ and ‘shocker’ should be ‘off’ when placing mouse)
Adjust treadmill speed as needed for study (recommend starting at speed of 6, and increase by 2 for every 2 minute interval) - remember to advance the "tens" place if needed on the speed dial
If animal is exhausted turn off shocker or cease air puffs and move to safe zone - record the time to exhaustion (recommended criteria is 3 seconds of contact with the shocker or air puffer, or 3 separate brief contacts with the shocker or air puffer – can adjust as needed for your study, but should be consistent with your IACUC animal protocol)
Turn off Treadmill Power Supply
Clean up the room

Note - depending on your paradigm you may want to habituate/acclimate animals to the treadmill for a couple of days before beginning testing (5-15 minutes of placement in the treadmill with speed at 0, or a limited duration at low speed)

Latency to Exhaustion : Time until the animal ceased running on the treadmill

Distance Traveled : Distance traveled by the animal (the cumulative product of the time and speed that the animal participated in the test before failing)