International guidelines call for laboratory mice to be kept at room temperature. Yet the rodents find that range — 20–26 °C — uncomfortably chilly, says immunologist Elizabeth Repasky of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York. Mice, she notes, lose body heat more rapidly than humans, and, when given a choice, prefer to reside at a balmy 30 °C.
At stake might be more than just creature comforts. In a study published today by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1, Repasky and her colleagues report that in mice housed at room temperature, tumour growth was faster than in those housed at 30 °C, and immune responses to cancer were suppressed.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Some like it hot
Chilly lab mice skew cancer studies
Thanks for this Steve, it highlights a serious problem with animal studies. I first became aware of this when it was demonstrated that in stress related studies on mice even the smell of rat urine from previous experiments was skewing the results.
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