A non-invasive physiological monitoring framework for advancing preclinical research: Proof-of-concept

Physiological monitoring in preclinical research is often complicated by invasive sensors, restraint, handling and anaesthesia, which may alter cardiovascular, respiratory and stress-related variables. We developed a low-cost, non-invasive monitoring framework for physiological data acquisition in mice. The system combines a miniaturized wearable photoplethysmography sensor derived from a commercial fitness tracker, a low-power edge gateway and a cloud-connected software stack for data storage, metadata management, visualization and export. Two adult female C57BL/6 mice were used to assess feasibility, tolerability and system operation under standard home-cage conditions. The device was applied to the dorsal surface under brief isoflurane anaesthesia and recording continued during recovery and for two hours in the home cage. The system enabled continuous acquisition and transmission of photoplethysmographic signals, although signal quality was variable because of motion, contact instability and saturation. Data and metadata were successfully integrated into an interactive dashboard. This preliminary study supports the feasibility of the framework and identifies signal-quality assessment as a key requirement for future development.