ReviewMolecular metabolism2012
Not so hot: Optimal housing temperatures for mice to mimic the thermal environment of humans.
Review in Molecular metabolism, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 113 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
113 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 196 citations in OpenAlex.
- Under Control? Mouse Models of Heat Exposure: A Systematic Review of Experimental Design and Methodology.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Acetaminophen (Paracetamol) Induces Hypothermia During Acute Cold Stress.Clinical drug investigation · 2017Trial
- Metabolic responses to physiological stressors assessed using continuous glucose monitoring integrated with indirect calorimetry in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Thermoregulatory adaptations to cold in C3H/HeJ mice are independent of ADRB3 signaling.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Effect of Water Temperature during Aquatic Exercise on Cognitive Impairment in Mice with Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion.Journal of vascular research · 2026Article
- Early-phase impact of obesity-associated stress on murine vascular smooth muscle cells depends on EGFR and sex.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Ndufs4GeroScience · 2025Review
- Laboratory mice engrafted with natural gut microbiota possess a wildling-like phenotype.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Combined sedentarism and high-fat diet induce early signs of kidney injury in C57BL/6J mice.American journal of physiology. Renal physiology · 2025Article
- The Futile Creatine Cycle powers UCP1-independent thermogenesis in classical BAT.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research.Nature metabolism · 2025Review
- Designing and Evaluating Circadian Experiments on Mouse Skin.The Journal of investigative dermatology · 2025Review
- Ablation of Leptin Receptor Signaling Alters Somatotrope Transcriptome Maturation in Female Mice.Endocrinology · 2025Article
- High fat diet-induced loss of pituitary plasticity in aging female mice with ablated leptin signaling in somatotropes.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Alpha-ketoglutarate supplementation improves hyperglycemia and attenuates the decrease in GLUT4 and PGC-1α proteins in adipose tissue of streptozotocin-high-fat diet-induced diabetic mice.Journal of nutritional science · 2025Article
- Huddling substates in mice facilitate dynamic changes in body temperature and are modulated by Shank3b and Trpm8 mutation.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Six months of physical inactivity is insufficient to cause chronic kidney disease in C57BL/6J mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Adipocyte deletion of the oxygen-sensor PHD2 sustains elevated energy expenditure at thermoneutrality.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Thermoneutrality Inhibits Thermogenic Markers and Exacerbates Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease in Mice.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Article
53 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
It has been argued that mice should be housed at 30 °C to best mimic the thermal conditions experienced by humans, and that the current practice of housing mice at 20-22 °C impairs the suitability of mice as a model for human physiology and disease. In the current paper we challenge this notion. First, we show that humans routinely occupy environments about 3 °C below their lower critical temperature (T lc), which when lightly clothed is about 23 °C. Second, we review the data for the T lc of mice. Mouse T lc is dependent on body weight and about 26-28 °C for adult mice weighing >25 g. The equivalent temperature to that normally experienced by humans for most single housed adult mice is therefore 23-25 °C. Group housing or providing the mice with bedding and nesting material might lower this to about 20-22 °C, close to current standard practice.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.