Setting Ambient Temperature Conditions to Optimize Translation of Molecular Work from the Mouse to Human: The “Goldilocks Solution”

Housing temperature plays a critical role in determining gut microbiome composition in research mice: Implications for experimental reproducibility

“…Finally, because temperature changes modulate the degree of adrenergic stress and have significant effects on the gut microbiome and mouse physiology in general, we believe that, going forward, it will be valuable to conduct experiments, especially those directed towards translating findings to patients, at more than one temperature to obtain a better understanding of the range of outcomes that can be expected in the clinic in patients experiencing different levels of stress [ 3 , 70 ].…”

Human total, basal and activity energy expenditures are independent of ambient environmental temperature

“…This observation has implications for the debate about the best temperature at which to house mice to provide the best translation to studies of humans (( Fischer et al., 2018 , 2019 ; Ganeshan and Chawla, 2017 ; Gordon, 2017 ; Keijer et al., 2019a , b ; Li and Speakman, 2022 ; Maloney et al., 2014 ; Speakman and Keijer, 2014 ). Although it is generally agreed that keeping mice at 20–22°C is too cold, the present data suggest that the widely promoted alternative of keeping them at 30°C because a) that is mouse thermoneutral, and b) humans always live at thermoneutral, is based on an error in the second statement.…”

Research Animal Behavioral Management Programs for the 21st Century

“…Use of non-aversive handling techniques (i.e., tunnel-handling) for breeding mouse colonies has been associated with increased pups born and weaned per litter, important for both breeding colony management as well as reproductive studies examining fertility [ 73 ]. As a final example, provision of adequate nesting material for mice has been demonstrated to improve mouse breeding performance and is recommended for thermoregulation of mice to enhance translatability of mouse-based molecular research [ 74 , 75 ]. These examples demonstrate that implementation of robust behavioral management programs have the potential for improving not only research animal welfare, but also data quality and reproducibility.…”