Study: Mice Gain Weight In Cold Temperatures Due To Gut Changes (economist.com)

Beeftopia writes with the results of a study described in The Economist: Mice were separated into two groups, one temperature maintained at 6C, the other at 22C. Researchers expected the cold mice to lose weight as they burned stored fat to stay warm. And for the first few days they did. But after five to ten days, in spite of their rations not increasing, the cold mice begain to put on weight. When scientists examined the gut microbiome of the previously identical mice, they found they were radically different. Additionally, the intestine had grown villi 50% larger than those of the warm temperature mice. Finally, after transplanting the gut microflora into a new batch of aseptic mice kept at warm temperatures, those mice showed the increased insulin sensitivity, cold tolerance, and villi length of the cold mice.

Comments

Re:I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from here

[Ungrounded Lightning]

What's the conclusion to be drawn, from these experiments? That if we don't want to gain weight, we should all move to Florida?

How about: "The mouse gut bacteria that flourish in cold weather conditions signal the mouse to take more nutrition from the gut. They're throwing more of their own potential food supply to the mouse than the summer-time bugs, in order to keep their house intact and warm (rather than starved to death) over the winter months."

Yet another instance of life forms involved in a symbiosis evolving better mutual-survival strategies.