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1 Department of Biology, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA
2 Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
3 Department of Biology, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, USA; Department of Genetics and Development, University Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sswoap{at}williams.edu.
Ambient air temperatures (Ta) of less than 6 °C or greater than 29 °C have been shown to induce large changes in arterial blood pressure and heart rate in homeotherms. The present study was designed to investigate whether small incremental changes in Ta, such as those found in typical laboratory settings, would have an impact on blood pressure and other cardiovascular parameters in mice and rats. We predicted that small decreases in Ta would impact the cardiovascular parameters of mice more than rats due to the increased thermogenic demands resulting from a greater surface area/volume ratio in mice relative to rats. Cardiovascular parameters were measured with radiotelemetry in mice and rats that were housed in temperature-controlled environments. The animals were exposed to different Ta every 72 hours, beginning at 30 °C and incrementally decreasing by 4 °C at each time interval to 18 °C and then incrementally increasing back up to 30 °C. As Ta decreased, mean blood pressure, heart rate, and pulse pressure increased significantly for both mice (1.6 mmHg / °C , 14.4 bpm / °C , and 0.8 mmHg / °C , respectively) and rats (1.2 mmHg / C, 8.1 bpm / °C , and 0.8 mmHg / °C , respectively). Thus, small changes in Ta significantly impact the cardiovascular parameters of both rats and mice, with mice demonstrating a greater sensitivity to these Ta changes.
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