Aged interleukin-10(tm1Cgn) chronically inflamed mice have substantially reduced fat mass, metabolic rate, and adipokines

Interleukin 10(tm1Cgn) (IL 10(tm)) mice have been utilized as a model of chronic inflammation and declining health span because of their propensity to develop chronic activation in NFkB pathways, skeletal muscle and cardiac changes, and mitochondrial dysfunction. We hypothesized that older IL 10(tm) frail mice would have alterations similar to frail, older humans in measured parameters of glucose metabolism, oxygen consumption (VO(2)), respiratory quotient (RQ), spontaneous locomotor activity, body composition and plasma adipokine levels. To test this hypothesis, we investigated these metabolic parameters in cohorts of 3, 10, and 20 month old IL 10(tm) female mice and age and gender matched C57Bl/6 mice. Insulin sensitivity, glucose homeostasis, locomotor activity and RQ were not significantly altered between the two strains of mice. Interestingly, old IL 10(tm) mice had significantly decreased VO(2) when normalized by lean mass, but not when normalized by fat mass or the lean/fat mass ratio. NMR based body composition analysis and dissection weights show that fat mass is decreased with age in IL 10(tm) mice compared to controls. Further, plasma adiponectin and leptin were also decreased in IL 10(tm).These findings suggest that frailty observed in this mouse model of chronic inflammation may in part be driven by alterations in fat mass, hormone secretion and energy metabolism.