ReviewAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2020
Reducing versus Embracing Variation as Strategies for Reproducibility: The Microbiome of Laboratory Mice.
Review in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 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
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Recommendations for robust and reproducible preclinical research in personalised medicine.BMC medicine · 2023Guideline
- ComparingGut microbes · 2025Article
- Article
- How thoughtful experimental design can empower biologists in the omics era.Nature communications · 2025Review
- Laboratory mice engrafted with natural gut microbiota possess a wildling-like phenotype.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Differential microbial community assembly following co-housing versus microbiota transplant.The ISME journal · 2025Article
- Differences in enteric neuronal density in the NSE-Noggin mouse model across institutes.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Bact-to-Batch: A Microbiota-Based Tool to Determine Optimal Animal Allocation in Experimental Designs.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Repeated early-life exposure to anaesthesia and surgery causes subsequent anxiety-like behaviour and gut microbiota dysbiosis in juvenile rats.British journal of anaesthesia · 2023Article
- Microbiota of the Pregnant Mouse: Characterization of the Bacterial Communities in the Oral Cavity, Lung, Intestine, and Vagina through Culture and DNA Sequencing.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Misidentified biomedical resources: Journal guidelines are not a quick fix.International journal of cancer · 2022Article
- Article
- Compositional Changes of the High-Fat Diet-Induced Gut Microbiota upon Consumption of Common Pulses.Nutrients · 2021Article
- Taxonomic composition and variation in the gut microbiota of laboratory mice.Mammalian genome : official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society · 2021Review
- Microbiota Depletion Promotes Human Rotavirus Replication in an Adult Mouse Model.Biomedicines · 2021Article
- Health Monitoring of Laboratory Rodent Colonies-Talking about (R)evolution.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2021Review
- The Gut Microbiome and Substance Use Disorder.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2021Review
- Quercetin Preserves Oral Cavity Health by Mitigating Inflammation and Microbial Dysbiosis.Frontiers in immunology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Irreproducibility is a well-recognized problem in biomedical animal experimentation. Phenotypic variation in animal models is one of the many challenging causes of irreproducibility. How to deal with phenotypic variation in experimental designs is a topic of debate. Both reducing and embracing variation are highlighted as strategies for reproducibility. In this theoretical review, we use variation in mouse microbiome composition as an example to analyze this ongoing discussion, drawing on both animal research and philosophy of science. We provide a conceptual explanation of reproducibility and analyze how the microbiome affects mouse phenotypes to demonstrate that the role of the microbiome in irreproducibility can be understood in two ways: (i) the microbiome can act as a confounding factor, and (ii) the result may not be generalizable to mice harboring a different microbiome composition. We elucidate that reducing variation minimizes confounding, whereas embracing variation ensures generalizability. These contrasting strategies make dealing with variation in experimental designs extremely complex. Here, we conclude that the most effective strategy depends on the specific research aim and question. The field of biomedical animal experimentation is too broad to identify a single optimal strategy. Thus, dealing with variation should be considered on a case-by-case basis, and awareness amongst researchers is essential.
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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.