PhenoMaster is an animal-friendly apparatus, creating home-like, stress-reduced environment for tested subjects. The system allows for metabolic characterization of a single animal. It is a modular system, consisting of:
- metabolic cages (which allow for individual housing of animals)
- information gathering sensors
- separate processing/control units (responsible for information processing and data output)
- computer software
Depending on experimentator’s needs and availability of processing/control units, several parameters can be obtained with PhenoMaster system:
- indirect gas calorimetry (oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide production, respiratory exchange ratio calculation as an important factor for indication of energy substrates utilization)
- food and liquid intake
- weight of the subject
- locomotor activity (obtained either with usage of running wheel or infrared beamemitting frames, within “xyz” plane)
PhenoMaster system has been supplied by TSE-systems company:
http://www.tse-systems.com/products/metabolism/home-cage/phenomaster/index.htm