Metabolic rate and saliva cortisol concentrations in socially housed adolescent guinea pigs

Matthias Nemeth, Susanna Fritscher, Klara Füreder, Bernard Wallner, Eva Millesi

Publications: Contribution to journalArticlePeer Reviewed

Abstract

An individual’s energetic demands and hence metabolic rate can strongly change during adolescence, a phase characterized by profound morphological, physiological, and endocrine changes. Glucocorticoid hormones (e.g. cortisol) are released in response to hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal–axis activity, modulate several metabolic processes, and can also be linked to increased metabolic rate. In domestic guinea pigs (Cavia aperea f. porcellus) housed in same-sex groups, cortisol concentrations increase during adolescence in males but remain stable in females, which was suggested to be related to different energetic demands by age. We therefore measured metabolic rate through oxygen (O2) consumption over 2.5 h in male and female guinea pigs housed in same-sex groups during adolescence at ages of 60, 120, and 180 days, which was paralleled by analyses of saliva cortisol concentrations before and after the measurement. The statistical analyses involved whole body metabolic rate (ml O2/h), body mass-corrected metabolic rate (ml O2/h/kg), and body mass-independent metabolic rate (ml O2/h statistically corrected for body mass). We found increasing cortisol concentrations with age in males only, but none of the three metabolic rate analyses revealed a sex difference by age. On the individual level, repeatability across ages was found in metabolic rate as well as in body mass and cortisol concentrations after the measurement, but not in “basal” cortisol concentrations. Our results suggest no sex-specific changes in metabolic rate and hence equal energetic demands in male and female guinea pigs during adolescence. Moreover, metabolic rate clearly represents a highly stable physiological trait already early in a guinea pig’s life irrespective of rather fluctuating cortisol concentrations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)925-933
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Comparative Physiology B: biochemical, systemic, and environmental physiology
Volume194
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

  • 106001 General biology
  • 106048 Animal physiology
  • 106054 Zoology
  • 106051 Behavioural biology

Keywords

  • Adolescence
  • Metabolic rate
  • Oxygen consumption
  • Repeatability
  • Saliva cortisol
  • Sex difference

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Metabolic rate and saliva cortisol concentrations in socially housed adolescent guinea pigs'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this