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Review
. 2021 Apr;3(4):443-445.
doi: 10.1038/s42255-021-00372-0.

Mice as experimental models for human physiology: when several degrees in housing temperature matter

Randy J Seeley  1 , Ormond A MacDougald  2
Affiliations
Review

Mice as experimental models for human physiology: when several degrees in housing temperature matter

Randy J Seeley et al. Nat Metab. 2021 Apr.

Abstract

Standfirst: Some “species differences” between mouse and human can be diminished simply by housing mice at warmer temperatures. Failure to strategically turn up the thermostat may undermine translation of findings in mice into insights on human metabolic diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests

RJS has received research support from Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Kintai and consulting fees from Novo Nordisk, Kintai, Scohia and has equity positions in Zafgen, Calibrate Health and Rewind. OAM has received research support from Novo Nordisk, Regeneron, AstraZenica, and Agilent.

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Room Temperature vs Thermoneutrality in mouse A comparison of a variety of physiological systems in the mouse under either typical, room temperature housing conditions versus mice housed close to their thermoneutral temperature. Green arrows indicate that the parameter appears to be closer to human when the mouse is housed at thermoneutral conditions. This implies that for many experiments, housing mice at thermoneutral conditions would increase translatability of mouse experiments to humans.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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