Introduction to the Clermont-Ferrand site

The site

The “Calorimetrics Chambers” platform is hosted at the Laboratory of Human Nutrition (‘LNH’) at Clermont Ferrand regional university teaching hospital (‘CRHU’). It backs onto the Human Nutrition Unit (‘UNH’), creating physical ties with the Lipid and Energy Metabolism (‘MLE’) team.

The Human Nutrition Unit

The Human Nutrition Unit (UMR 1019, an INRA/Auvergne University joint research unit) is one of the INRA’s Alim-H Division units. It is home to eight research teams, a set of experimental facilities, a mass spectrometry team assigned specifically to the technical platform, and an administrative office.
The UNH conducts research into the impact of foods, diets and micro/macro-nutrients on the metabolic pathways functionally involved in body homeostasis in order to produce the groundwork for case-adapted nutritional guidelines.
The UNH continues to develop a pioneering approach designed to determine the functionality of foodstuffs in different pathophysiological settings frequently associated with ageing, as a step towards pre-empting the ageing-related decline in core body functions.
The UNH can draw on a particularly broad panel of analytical tools coupling cell models and animal experimentation with clinical nutrition trials in human volunteers. The unit has achieved scientific excellence by harnessing advanced skillsets in physiology, biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology, and throughout the field of human nutrition.
UNH website : http://www1.clermont.inra.fr/unh/

The Lipid and Energy Metabolism team

The mission of the Lipid and Energy Metabolism (‘MLE’) team is to establish nutritional strategies centred on dietary lipid and energy intake as a step towards pre-empting the metabolic diseases associated with ageing and overweight (such as insulin resistance and CVD). Research is focused on lipid nutrition and lipid and energy metabolism.

The team employs holistically-oriented ‘whole-body’ approaches to lipid and energy metabolism in order to understand the mechanisms that destabilize energy balance. The team's analysis integrates physiology, dietary factors, and tracking physical activity.

Tissue-based approaches focus in on the impact of lipid source and food matrix quality on:

• lipoprotein metabolism, polyunsaturated fatty acid peroxidation, and vascular reactivity. The repercussions in terms of developing atherosclerosis.
• muscle lipid and energy metabolism, especially mitochondrial functions. The repercussions in terms of developing insulin resistance.
• body fat metabolism and its role in the onset of low-grade inflammation. The repercussions in terms of aetiology of metabolic disease.

The MLE team is oriented towards engineering integrative approaches. Its organizational framework is therefore scaffolded on cellular biology platforms, small-animal physiology platforms, and clinical trials in humans.

The "Calorimetrics Chambers" platform

This platform comprises two identical 10 m² calorimetrics chambers enabling continuous in vivo energy expenditure measurements encompassing the following analyses:

• precise estimates of energy balance over a 24-hr timeframe, based on controlled tracking of dietary intake and physical activity
• determination of the kinetics of energy expenditure
• assessment of the nutritional requirements of specific target populations, such as athletes
• determination of metabolic disturbances
• studies on the thermogenic properties of individual nutrients, drugs and nutrition formulas (diet regimens)
• investigations exploring energy expenditure under normal living conditions

The calorimetric chambers enable accurate estimates of energy expenditure and use of energy substrates (proteins, lipids, carbohydrates) by a person living under conditions where diet and physical activity are tightly controlled.

The chambers are run on the principle of open-circuit indirect calorimetry, which consists in measuring respiratory exchange ratios between oxygen consumption and CO2 production).
The chambers are comfortably decked out and sufficiently well-equipped to enable measurements of energy expenditure, heart rate and physical activity metrics over periods stretching from 24 hrs up to several days.
This platform setup is extended by a system of heart rate monitors and physical activity meters for running home-based estimates of energy expenditure, plus a suite of technologies and facilities for measuring body composition (bioelectrical impedance analysis, dual X-ray absorptiometry, MRI).
Having the Auvergne Human Nutrition research Centre next-door means that infrastructure facilities and qualified staff (doctors, clinical research assistants, nurses, dieticians and a cook) are on hand to provide full protocol management logistics backup:

• recruitment of volunteers, scheduling management
• medical screening for the inclusion of volunteers
• sampling
• producing calibrated meals in order to stringently control the volunteers' dietary intake and energy balance

The technical platform is also next-door to the MLE team, but it actually represents a broader-level resource available to cross-unit teams and outside partners, whether from the INRA, other public science and technology institutions, or public or private agencies.
The analytical resources on offer have the potential to interest industry groups from sectors including:

• agrifoods (creating supplements with added nutritional value, nutritional claims, labelling)
• nutraceuticals (development of dietary supplements)
• pharmaceuticals (creating nutritional drugs with added medical benefits)
• computer science and bioinformatics (medical or diet tracking software to analyze energy requirements and physical activity)
• technology (sport and fitness appliances, heat rate monitors for real-time calculation and totalling of energy expenditure)