PIXImus DXA with different software needs individual calibration to accurately predict fat mass.

OBJECTIVE: To validate GE PIXImus2 DXA fat mass (FM) estimates by chemical analysis, to compare previously published correction equations with an equation from our machine, and to determine intermachine variation. RESEARCH METHODS AND PROCEDURES: C57BL/6J (n = 16) and Aston (n = 14) mice (including ob/ob), Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus) (n = 15), and bank voles (Clethrionomys glareolus) (n = 37) were DXA scanned postmortem, dried, then fat extracted using a Soxhlet apparatus. We compared extracted FM with DXA-predicted FM corrected using an equation designed using wild-type animals from split-sample validation and multiple regression and two previously published equations. Sixteen animals were scanned on both a GE PIXImus2 DXA in France and a second machine in the United Kingdom. RESULTS: DXA underestimated FM of obese C57BL/6J by 1.4 +/- 0.19 grams but overestimated FM for wild-type C57BL/6J (2.0 +/- 0.11 grams), bank voles (1.1 +/- 0.09 grams), and hamsters (1.1 +/- 0.13 grams). DXA-predicted FM corrected using our equation accurately predicted extracted FM (accuracy 0.02 grams), but the other equations did not (accuracy, -1.3 and -1.8 grams; paired Student's t test, p < 0.001). Two similar DXA instruments gave the same FM for obese mutant but not lean wild-type animals. DISCUSSION: DXA using the same software could use the same correction equation to accurately predict FM for obese mutant but not lean wild-type animals. PIXImus machines purchased with new software need validating to accurately predict FM.

Temporal changes in gene expression in the arcuate nucleus precede seasonal responses in adiposity and reproduction.

In anticipation of seasonal climate changes, Siberian hamsters display a strategy for survival that entails profound physiological adaptations driven by photoperiod. These include weight loss, reproductive quiescence, and pelage growth with shortening photoperiod and vice versa with lengthening photoperiod. This study reports gene expression changes in the hypothalamus of Siberian hamsters switched from short days (SD) to long days (LD), and also in photorefractory hamsters. Siberian hamsters were maintained in either LD or SD for 14 wk, conditions that generate physiological states of obesity under LD and leanness under SD. After 14 wk, SD lighting was switched to LD and gene expression investigated after 0, 2, 4, and 6 wk by in situ hybridization. Genes encoding nuclear receptors (RXR/RAR), retinoid binding proteins (CRBP1 and CRABP2), and histamine H3 receptor were photoperiodically regulated with significantly lower expression in SD, whereas VGF mRNA expression was significantly higher in SD, in the dorsomedial posterior arcuate nucleus. After a SD-to-LD switch, gene expression changes of CRABP2, RAR, H3R, and VGF occurred relatively rapidly toward LD control levels, ahead of body weight recovery and testicular recrudescence, whereas CRBP1 responded less robustly and rxrgamma did not respond at the mRNA level. In this brain nucleus in photorefractory animals, the CRABP2, RAR, H3R, and VGF mRNA returned toward LD levels, whereas CRBP1 and rxrgamma remained at the reduced SD level. Thus, genes described here are related to photoperiodic programming of the neuroendocrine hypothalamus through expression responses within a subdivision of the arcuate nucleus.