In cage running wheels

Voluntary mouse activity was assessed using monitored running wheels. For this test, mice were housed individually in cages equipped with in-cage running wheels (STARR life sciences). Average wheel turns per mouse were assessed over a period of 10 days for daytime (6 AM–6 PM) and nighttime (6 PM–6 AM), excluding the initial 3-day acclimation period.

Electronic telemetry devices (G2 E-mitters, Starr Life Sciences, Oakmont, PA) were surgically implanted into the peritoneal cavity using an aseptic technique as previously described [35 (link)]. Mice recovered from surgery with in-cage running wheels (Starr-Life Sciences) with a 120.7 mm diameter and 50.8 mm width for 1 week prior to data collection. Following this recovery period, cages were placed on receiving platforms (ER4000, Starr Life Sciences) to continuously record core body temperature and total locomotion. Glass probes recorded voluntary wheel running at 1-min sampling intervals using VitalView 5.1 software (Starr Life Sciences). ClockLab Analysis 6 (Actimetrics, Wilmette, IL, USA) generated 24-h graphs of wheel running, locomotion, and body temperature. All wheel running, locomotion, and body temperature graphs were double-plotted to better visualize trends in chemotherapy-induced fatigue (average dark phase running wheel revolutions and locomotor emitter counts) and fever (°C). In Experiment 2, a recording error prevented data acquisition on days 25-27 (11-13 d following chemotherapy) but did not affect statistical differences in recovery from fatigue measures. VitalView software was used to ensure that voluntary wheel running occurred when analyzing effects of exercise on body composition and central and peripheral inflammation.