Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping and Surgery Core

Leadership:

Dudley Lamming, PhD, Director
Andrea Galmozzi, PhD, Associate Director
David Harris, MD, Associate Director

Core Description:

The goal of the Mouse Phenotyping and Surgery Core (MPSC) is to provide UW-Madison Comprehensive Diabetes Center members with access to skilled personnel and equipment for the phenotyping of mouse metabolism, and access to skilled surgical staff. The Mouse Phenotyping and Surgery Core will provide critical resources and expertise to researchers investigating the biology of diabetes and other metabolic disorders. This core will be on the forefront of development and the testing of new ways to prevent and treat metabolic disease

An epidemic of obesity is sweeping across the United States as well as the entire world, with more than 2 in 3 adults now considered overweight or obese. Obesity is associated with an increased risk of many diseases, including type 2 diabetes, and both obesity and diabetes are risk factors for many other diseases, significantly amplifying the impact of diabetes and obesity. Research into the development, prevention, and treatment of diabetes, obesity and other metabolic disorders relies heavily upon the use of mouse models to investigate how diet, drugs, and genetic alterations impact metabolism.

Description of Core Services:

• Body composition Echo Magnetic Resonance (EchoMRI; Echo Medical System, Houston, Texas): At the MPSC Site 1, analysis of body composition is performed via 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which is used to measure total body fat, lean mass, and free water content.
• Metabolic Chamber Analysis: A Comprehensive Laboratory Animal Monitoring System (CLAMS, Columbus Instruments, Columbus, Ohio) provides the ability to simultaneously measure energy expenditure through indirect calorimetry and spontaneous activity tracking, and analyze energy intake through measurement of food intake. MPSC staff can help coordinate and utilize these services.
• Glucose/insulin/pyruvate/alanine tolerance tests, glucose-stimulated insulin secretion assays: MPSC staff are experienced in experimental design and power calculations, performing glucose-stimulated insulation secretion assays, training investigators, and interpreting the resulting data.
• Surgical Models:  MPSC staff has the experience across a wide variety of rodent procedures including bariatric surgical procedures, implantation of devices, blood vessel cannulations, and intestinal infusion models.
• Animal Care: The MPSC can house animals at each of our three sites for a cost of Site 1: $0.40/mouse/day and Sites 2/3: $1.05/cage/day.
• Hyperinsulinemic–euglycemic clamp: The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp is used as an assessment of insulin sensitivity. This service will be done in collaboration with the  Mouse Phenotyping, Physiology and Metabolism Core at the University of Pennsylvania Diabetes Research Center.
• Other procedures: There are a variety of other procedures available to WDRC members via the MPSC. These include euthanasia and tissue collection for molecular and histological analysis, which we routinely perform, freezing tissues in liquid nitrogen, collecting blood, embedding tissue in OCT, or fixing tissues using formalin.

Rate Structure: