| Non-Invasive
Imaging of Thermoregulation |
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One
way of examining the control and regulation of body
temperature in mammals is to examine the spatial and
temporal distribution of temperature over the body surface.
Peripheral organs such as the legs and ears can act
as sites for heat loss or heat conservation, depending
on the amount of skin blood flow. The amount of blood
that goes to these surfaces is tightly regulated in
a fashion that allows for homeostatic regulation of
body temperature.
Infrared thermography provides a snap-shot of the approximate
surface temperature of any object. I have used this
technique to non-invasively test whether hypoxic squirrels
adjust their peripheral blood flow in hypoxia to adjust
heat loss. The results suggest that squirrels undergo
a transient increase in their peripheral perfusion,
and this serves to 'dump' core body heat to the environment,
allowing body temperature to fall. The fact that peripheral
blood flow appears to be controlled in this manner
provides
some indirect evidence for a reduced set-point body
temperature in hypoxia.
Non-invasive techniques, such as infrared thermography,
can provide high quality data with minimal disturbance
to the animal. These kind of techniques are commonly
used in my laboratory.
Click Here to see a video version of the
picture above, showing a squirrel dumping heat after
exposed to 7% oxygen. |
Publications
Tattersall, G.
J. and Milsom, W. K. 2003. Transient peripheral
warming accompanies the hypoxic metabolic response in
the golden-mantled ground squirrel. Journal
of Experimental Biology. 206: 33-42. 
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