Faster Response to High-Fat Diet in Body Mass Regulation from Lower Altitude Population in Eothenomys miletus from Hengduan Mountain Regions

Small mammals usually showed physiological and behavioral adaptations to cope with seasonal environmental changing, such as temperature, photoperiod, and food etc. To investigate the physiological and behavioral adaptation strategies in Eothenomys miletus of different areas from Hengduan mountain regions in response to high-fat diet, E. miletus in Jianchuan (JC) and Xianggelila (XGLL) were fed a high-fat (HF) diet for 4 weeks and returned to a low-fat (LF) diet for another 4 weeks, body mass, food intake, resting metabolic rate (RMR), activity behavior, serum leptin levels, hypothalamic neuropeptide expressions and body compositions were measured. The results showed that regions and HF diet affected body mass, food intake and RMR significantly, HF diet increased body mass in E. miletus, while regions