Dietary fats influence consumption and metabolic measures in male and female laboratory mice

Juvenile and adult male and female Swiss mice in metabolism cages were fed one of four specially-formulated, pelleted diets containing respectively 8% saturated vegetable fat, 8% soya oil, 8% olive oil and 2% soya oil. The id entities of the diets were hidden from the experimenter. Subjects were indi vidually housed in metabolism cages and their consumption of food, growth a nd eliminative activities were measured. Clearly, these non-isocaloric diet s differed in palatability, producing complex effects on growth as well as metabolic measures. Many indices were influenced by age, sex, and the durat ion of dietary exposure. Interactions between factors were common. Dietary fats appear to have subtle effects on the physiology and behaviour of roden ts and may account for some differences between studies.