Wheel Running Exercise Test
Objective: Assessment of spontaneous locomotor activity in free wheel exercise to measure exercise capacity and running performance in mice
This is a Wheel Running Exercise Test protocol using mouse as the model organism. The procedure involves 5 procedural steps, 3 equipment items. Extracted from a 2013 paper published in Nature Medicine.
Model and subjects
mouse • Rev-erb-α-deficient and wild-type littermates • unknown • Not specified • Not specified
Study window
~1.7 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Spontaneous locomotor activity assessment • Basal oxygen consumption measurement • Maximal oxygen consumption measurement
Primary readouts
- Spontaneous locomotor activity in free wheel exercise
- Basal oxygen consumption (VO2b) at rest
- Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) at exhaustion
- Aerobic capacity during exercise
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Spontaneous locomotor activity assessment
Place mice in free wheel exercise apparatus and measure spontaneous running activity
Note: Rev-erb-α−/− mice exhibited markedly reduced spontaneous locomotor activity compared to wild-type littermates
View evidence from paper
“Rev-erb-α−/−-deficient (Rev-erb-α−/−) mice exhibited markedly reduced spontaneous locomotor activity in a free wheel exercise compared to wild-type littermates”
Basal oxygen consumption measurement
Measure basal oxygen consumption (VO2b) at rest using forced progressive treadmill exercise protocol
Note: VO2b measured at rest was not significantly different between Rev-erb-α−/− and wild-type genotypes
View evidence from paper
“VO2b measured at rest was not significantly different between the two genotypes”
Maximal oxygen consumption measurement
Measure maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) at exhaustion during forced progressive treadmill exercise
Note: VO2max was significantly lower in Rev-erb-α−/− mice, resulting in >60% reduced aerobic capacity
View evidence from paper
“VO2max measured at exhaustion was significantly lower in Rev-erb-α−/− mice, resulting in a >60% reduced aerobic capacity during exercise”
Standard endurance exercise test
Perform endurance exercise test at 70% of respective VO2max for each genotype
Note: 50% of Rev-erb-α−/− mice stopped running within 50 min compared to only 20% of wild-type mice
View evidence from paper
“In a standard endurance exercise test performed at 70% of their respective VO2max, 50% of Rev-erb-α−/− mice, compared to only 20% of the wild-type mice, stopped running within 50 min”
Measure running time and distance
Record total running time and distance covered during endurance exercise test
Note: Rev-erb-α−/− mice ran for significantly shorter time and distance than wild-type littermates
View evidence from paper
“Rev-erb-α−/− mice ran for a significantly shorter time and distance than their wild-type littermates”