ArticleMolecular metabolism2019
What is the best housing temperature to translate mouse experiments to humans?
Article in Molecular metabolism, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 109 citations in OpenAlex.
- Under Control? Mouse Models of Heat Exposure: A Systematic Review of Experimental Design and Methodology.Acta physiologica (Oxford, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Enhanced metabolic benefits of dietary methionine restriction in cold resistant hybrid UCP1-deficient mice.The Journal of nutritional biochemistry · 2026Article
- The effects of housing temperature on mouse physiology and implications for disease modeling.Lab animal · 2026Review
- Enhancing Rodent Welfare, Cost Savings, and Efficiency: Implementation and Review of Data-Driven Improvements.Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2026Review
- Neither rats nor mice have a broad thermoneutral zone: implications for physiological studies.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Early-phase impact of obesity-associated stress on murine vascular smooth muscle cells depends on EGFR and sex.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Effects of FGF21, soluble TGFBR2, and environmental temperature on metabolic dysfunction in lipodystrophic mice.JCI insight · 2025Article
- Cold Exposure Exacerbates Cardiac Dysfunction in a Model of Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction in Male and Female C57Bl/6J Mice.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Chaperone-mediated autophagy manipulates PGC1α stability and governs energy metabolism under thermal stress.Nature communications · 2025Article
- The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research.Nature metabolism · 2025Review
- Protonophore treatment augments energy expenditure in mice housed at thermoneutrality.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- A Review of the Effects of Some Extrinsic Factors on Mice Used in Research.Comparative medicine · 2023Review
- Gβγ-SNAP25 exocytotic brake removal enhances insulin action, promotes adipocyte browning, and protects against diet-induced obesity.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2023Article
- Bedding as a variable affecting fasting blood glucose and vascular physiology in mice.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2023Article
- Reducing mitochondrial ribosomal gene expression does not alter metabolic health or lifespan in mice.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The metabolic cost of physical activity in mice using a physiology-based model of energy expenditure.Molecular metabolism · 2023Article
- The Influence of Ambient Temperature on Adipose Tissue Homeostasis, Metabolic Diseases and Cancers.Cells · 2023Review
- Brown Adipose Tissue-A Translational Perspective.Endocrine reviews · 2023Review
- Breathing patterns and CORespiratory physiology & neurobiology · 2023Article
- Antidiabetic Activities of 80% Methanol Extract and Solvent Fractions ofJournal of experimental pharmacology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAmbient temperature impinges on energy metabolism in a body size dependent manner. This has implications for the housing temperature at which mice are best compared to humans. In 2013, we suggested that, for comparative studies, solitary mice are best housed at 23-25 °C, because this is 3-5 °C below the mouse thermoneutral zone and humans routinely live 3-5 °C below thermoneutrality, and because this generates a ratio of DEE to BMR of 1.6-1.9, mimicking the ratio found in free-living humans.
methodsRecently, Fischer et al. (2017) challenged this estimate. By studying mice at 21 °C and at 30 °C (but notably not at 23-25 °C) they concluded that 30 °C is the optimal housing temperature. Here, we measured energy metabolism of C57BL/6 mice over a range of temperatures, between 21.4 °C and 30.2 °C.
resultsWe observed a ratio of DEE to BMR of 1.7 at 27.6 °C and of 1.8 at 25.5 °C, suggesting that this is the best temperature range for housing C57BL/6 mice to mimic human thermal relations. We used a 24 min average to calculate the ratio, similar to that used in human studies, while the ratio calculated by Fisher et al. dependent on short, transient metabolic declines.
conclusionWe concur with Fisher et al. and others that 21 °C is too cool, but we continue to suggest that 30 °C is too warm. We support this with other data. Finally, to mimic living environments of all humans, and not just those in controlled Western environments, mouse experimentation at various temperatures is likely required.
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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.