Comp Med. 2023 Dec 1;73(6):413-431. doi: 10.30802/AALAS-CM-23-000028.
Animals have been used in research for over 2,000 y. From very crude experiments conducted by ancient scholars, animal research, as a science, was refined over hundreds of years to what we know it as today. However, the housing conditions of animals used for research did not improve significantly until less than 100 years ago when guidelines for housing research animals were first published. In addition, it was not until relatively recently that some extrinsic factors were recognized as a research variable, even when animals were housed under recommended guidelines. For example, temperature, humidity, light, noise, vibration, diet, water, caging, bedding, etc., can all potentially affect research using mice, contributing the inability of others to reproduce published findings. Consequently, these external factors should be carefully considered in the design, planning, and execution of animal experiments. In addition, as recommended by others, the housing and husbandry conditions of the animals should be described in detail in publications resulting from animal research to improve study reproducibility. Here, we briefly review some common, and less common, external factors that affect research in one of the most popular animal models, the mouse.
动物研究已经有 2000 多年的历史了。从古代学者进行的非常粗略的实验开始，动物研究作为一门科学，经过数百年的发展，才发展到今天我们所知道的样子。然而，直到不到 100 年前，首次发布了研究动物饲养的指导方针，用于研究的动物的饲养条件才没有显著改善。此外，即使在动物按照推荐的指导方针饲养的情况下，直到最近才认识到一些外在因素是研究变量。例如，温度、湿度、光照、噪音、振动、饮食、水、笼具、垫料等，都可能会影响使用小鼠进行的研究，导致其他人无法重现已发表的研究结果。因此，在设计、规划和执行动物实验时，应仔细考虑这些外部因素。此外，正如其他人所建议的，应在动物研究产生的出版物中详细描述动物的饲养和管理条件，以提高研究的可重复性。在这里，我们简要回顾一些常见的和不太常见的外部因素，这些因素会影响最受欢迎的动物模型之一——小鼠的研究。
