Effects of selective breeding for high voluntary wheel-running behavior on femoral nutrient canal size and abundance in house mice.

Bone modeling and remodeling are aerobic processes that entail relatively high oxygen demands. Long bones receive oxygenated blood from nutrient arteries, epiphyseal-metaphyseal arteries, and periosteal arteries, with the nutrient artery supplying the bulk of total blood volume in mammals (~ 50-70%). Estimates of blood flow into these bones can be made from the dimensions of the nutrient canal, through which nutrient arteries pass. Unfortunately, measuring these canal dimensions non-invasively (i.e. without physical sectioning) is difficult, and thus researchers have relied on more readily visible skeletal proxies. Specifically, the size of the nutrient artery has been estimated from dimensions (e.g. minimum diameters) of the periosteal (external) opening of the nutrient canal. This approach has also been utilized by some comparative morphologists and paleontologists, as the opening of a nutrient canal is present long after the vascular soft tissue has degenerated. The literature on nutrient arteries and canals is sparse, with most studies consisting of anatomical descriptions from surgical proceedings, and only a few investigating the links between nutrient canal morphology and physiology or behavior. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate femur nutrient canal morphology in mice with known physiological and behavioral differences; specifically, mice from an artificial selection experiment for high voluntary wheel-running behavior. Mice from four replicate high runner (HR) lines are known to differ from four non-selected control (C) lines in both locomotor and metabolic activity, with HR mice having increased voluntary wheel-running behavior and maximal aerobic capacity (VO