Abstract
The wild wood mouse, Apodemus argenteus, is distributed widely in Japan. These wood mice are affected by seasonal temperature in the habitat. Especially, the ratio of the right ventricular weight (RVW) to left ventricular weight (LVW), RVW/LVW, and hematocrit (Ht) has been showing strong negative correlation between environmental temperatures. So, we studied the greenhouse effects on RVW/LVW and Ht in wild wood mice, Apodemus argenteus. These studies were carried out at 1972 and 2004 years, and examined the greenhouse effect on RVW/LVW and Ht. The principal findings of this study are: 1) RVW/LVW and Ht in 2004 were significantly smaller compared with in 1972. ; 2) the strong positive correlation between Ht and RVW/LVW was observed. We concluded that decreased RVW/LVW with greenhouse effect was a result of decreased Ht due to the increased environmental temperature. [Jpn J Physiol 55 Suppl:S227 (2005)]
