ArticlePloS one2013
Mice do not habituate to metabolism cage housing--a three week study of male BALB/c mice.
Article in PloS one, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Bored at home?-A systematic review on the effect of environmental enrichment on the welfare of laboratory rats and mice.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Pooled it
- Glucocorticoids in relation to behavior, morphology, and physiology as proxy indicators for the assessment of animal welfare. A systematic mapping review.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2022Pooled it
- Social context suppresses food anticipatory activity and associated thermoregulation in mice.PloS one · 2026Article
- Diurnal regulation of urinary behavior and gene expression in aged mice.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2025Article
- Thermoneutral environment improves mouse welfare and reduces stress in metabolic cages.Lab animal · 2025Article
- Dose-dependent evaluation of chronic oleocanthal on metabolic phenotypes and organ toxicity in 5xFAD mice.Pharmacological research. Natural products · 2025Article
- Metabolism in hematology: Technological advances open new perspectives on disease biology and treatment.HemaSphere · 2025Review
- Serum Cystatin C and 90-Day Neurological Functional Prognosis in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Insights from a Prospective Cohort and Mendelian Randomization.International journal of general medicine · 2025Article
- Refining urine collection in mice: Development of an innovative urine collection device.Laboratory animals · 2024Article
- Non-Invasive Monitoring of Corticosterone Levels in Mouse Urine with Liquid Chromatography-Electrospray Ionization-Tandem Mass Spectrometry.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Characterizing phenotypic data of Peromyscus leucopus compared to C57BL/6J Mus musculus and diversity outbred (DO) Mus musculus.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Androgens Suppress Corticosteroid Binding Globulin in Male Mice, Affecting the Endocrine Stress Response.Endocrinology · 2024Article
- Reduction in Cold Stress in an Innovative Metabolic Cage Housing System Increases Animal Welfare in Laboratory Mice.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Binge eating, overeating and food addiction: Approaches for examining food overconsumption in laboratory rodents.Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry · 2023Review
- Payload-Binding Fab Fragments Increase the Therapeutic Index of MMAE Antibody-Drug Conjugates.Molecular cancer therapeutics · 2023Article
- Adrenal-Specific KO of the Circadian Clock Protein BMAL1 Alters Blood Pressure Rhythm and Timing of Eating Behavior.Function (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Enhancing the expression of a key mitochondrial enzyme at the inception of ischemia-reperfusion injury can boost recovery and halt the progression of acute kidney injury.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and anxiety-like behavior during aging: A test of the glucocorticoid cascade hypothesis in amyloidogenic APPswe/PS1dE9 mice.General and comparative endocrinology · 2023Article
- Physiologic Effects of Housing Rats in Metabolic Cages.Comparative medicine · 2022Article
- Hypothalamic expression of huntingtin causes distinct metabolic changes in Huntington's disease mice.Molecular metabolism · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The metabolism cage is a barren, non-enriched, environment, combining a number of recognized environmental stressors. We investigated the ability of male BALB/c mice to acclimatize to this form of housing. For three weeks markers of acute and oxidative stress, as well as clinical signs of abnormality were monitored. Forced swim tests were conducted to determine whether the animals experienced behavioral despair and the serotonergic integrity was tested using an 8-OH-DPAT challenge. The metabolism cage housed mice excreted approximately tenfold higher amounts of corticosterone metabolites in feces throughout the study when compared to controls. Urinary biomarkers confirmed that these mice suffered from elevated levels of oxidative stress, and increased creatinine excretions indicated increased muscle catabolism. Changes in the core body temperature (stress-induced hyperthermia) and the fur state of the mice also indicated impaired well-being in the metabolism cage housed mice. However, monitoring body weight and feed intake was found misleading in assessing the wellbeing of mice over a longer time course, and the forced swim test was found poorly suited for studying chronic stress in mice in the present setup. In conclusion, the mice were found not to acclimatize to the metabolism cages whereby concern for animal welfare would dictate that mice should be housed in this way for as short periods as possible. The elevated degree of HPA axis activity, oxidative stress, and increased overall metabolism warrant caution when interpreting data obtained from metabolism cage housed mice, as their condition cannot be considered representative of a normal physiology.
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Registered trials
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