Use of thermography in studies of thermodynamics in frogs exposed to different ambiental temperatures

Physiological field of manipulating metabolism tries to elucidate how tissues recuperate after ischemic reperfusion changes, how signal-molecules coordinate metabolic pathways and what physiological changes to expect in induced artificial hypometabolism or suspended animation in biomedicine. Certain animals are adapted to oscillations in photoperiod, food abundance and thermal changes in the environment by changes in metabolism. Evolutionary developed mechanisms of lowered metabolism (torpor, hibernation, aestivation) followed by arousals to normal metabolic/thermoregulatory states present perfect models for such studies. In the light of the vast current interest in manipulating metabolism a natural behavior and adaptation of frogs, among other organisms makes them an appropriate standard model animal for such studies. The exact measurements of thermal changes of frogs body temperature correlated with ambiental temperature (T_a) changes are essential. Use of thermography allows us to precisely record real time thermal changes of body surface temperature in frogs in experiments of different temperature exposure. In this article we present the 24 hour dynamics of thermal changes of body surface of frogs kept for 30 days at T_a = 8°C (artificial hibernation) and then returned to T_a = 23°C (artificial arousal).