Comprehensive Metabolic Core

Metabolism Home Page

Mission

The development of transgenic animal models across a broad number of laboratories at Northwestern University has increased the interest in studies of metabolism and cardiovascular physiology at multiple levels. Novel gene pathways important in diabetes and obesity have been identified by investigators at Northwestern, and a wide number of applications ranging from biomedical engineering to transplantation, regenerative medicine, inflammation, developmental biology, pharmacology, and neurobehavioral disorders suggest an increasing interest in technologies for phenotyping mouse metabolic systems. The mission of our core is to advance research across Northwestern in diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease by establishing validated high-throughput hormone analyses and to create a consolidated reference center for efficient testing for the community.

Assay Services Offered

• Immunoassays for endocrine hormones
  • ELISA: Insulin, Leptin, Corticosterone, Estradiol
  • Human serum/plasma, urine and saliva melatonin
  • Many others; please contact us directly
• Luminex: multiplex assays using a small volume of sample
  • Cytokines, adipokines, chemokines
  • Hormones: insulin, leptin, etc.
• Roche Cobas e 411 analyzer
  • (human samples including serum, plasma and urine)Metabolic hormones: insulin, C-peptide, cortisol, ACTH
  • Reproductive hormones: Estradiol, FSH, LH, β-hCG, Progesterone, Testosterone, SHBG, DHEA-S, Prolactin
  • Thyroid hormones: TSH, FT4, T4, FT3, T3, anti-TPO antibody, Anti TSH-receptor antibody, Thyroglobulin (TG), anti-TG antibody
  • Bone metabolism: 25-OH-Vitamin D₃, Intact PTH, Osteocalcin, Total-P1NP
  • Tumor markers: AFP, CA 19-9, CEA, PSA (free and total)
  • Maternal screening markers: AFP, β-hCG, PAPP-A

Metabolic Services Offered

• Promethion Core Metabolic System (Sable Systems International)
  
  • Indirect calorimetry to assess energy expenditure
  • Locomotor activity monitoring
  • Feeding activity monitoring
  • Pair feeding
  • Restricted feeding
• EchoMRI™ -100H and EchoMRI™ E26-388-MT body composition analyzer (EchoMRI LLC) for Live Small Animals (Mice)
  • Precise body composition measurements of fat, lean, free water, and total water masses in live animals
  • EchoMRI™ -100H and EchoMRI™ E26-388-MT systems are used in the barrier and non-barrier mouse facilities, respectively