[Animal Experiment]-Why is the reliability of mouse experiment results getting lower and lower?

  Experimental results at the mouse level are generally not suitable for human treatment. However, more and more recent experimental results have shown that data obtained in one type of mouse subgroup cannot be used in another type of mouse subgroup. Reappear. This shows that many rodent-level experiments were not accurate from the beginning. Caroline Zeiss, an animal neuropathologist at Yale University, said:

  "We usually think that mice are similar, but this view actually has some problems." "The nuances of the environmental factors of the experimental animals used by researchers are rarely reported. These factors have a major impact on the results of the experiment." University of California Christopher Colwell, a neuroscientist at the University of Los Angeles, studied this problem for the first time. He and another colleague performed the same behavioral test on mice of the same strain, but the results were different. It was later discovered that Professor Colewell had artificially destroyed the biological clocks of these mice. In other words, they turned upside down day and night. This can make these mice allergic when conducting experiments during the day.

  Colwell believes that this mouse phenomenon is also reflected in humans. For example, in the midnight test, many subjects performed independently of the circadian rhythm. Nutrition is another factor that may affect the results of animal studies. Some mice’s diet contains estrogen and other endocrine-damaging chemicals, making cancer research results very unstable. In addition, high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods significantly hinder research related to obesity. Different foods also affect the distribution characteristics of the intestinal microbial community of mice. Catherine Hargan Gillespie, an animal pathologist at Jackson Labs, found that mice with different diets have very different types of gut microbes. In another unpublished study, she found that differences in gut microbes affect the results of behavioral tests in mice.

  But few behaviorists test the types of gut microbes that are also present in mice, so performing related tests can cause confusion. After all, the mouse gut microbiome is affected by many external factors, including air quality, maternal pressure and immune system function.

  The difference in the intestinal microbiome explains why mice with the same genetic background show different physiological characteristics. Jackson Labo is a company specializing in the breeding and reproduction of mice, and strictly controls the genetic background of each mouse from the quality of food and drinking water, but the test results of these mice still exist.  Some differences. The company is currently working to resolve this issue.

  The current fierce competition in the scientific research community makes it difficult for scientists to spend time thinking about livestock issues. However, if researchers can fully cover different ages and genders in the animal laboratory, the results will be more representative. However, at the same time, the chances of these studies being published are small. This is a difficult contradiction.

  IH is trying to solve this problem. Some laboratories say that animal research needs to be repeatedly verified before entering clinical trials. In 2014, NIH requested that female mice be included in animal research and provided a special grant.