4 ms·

Any mice trial should use 4 different breeds: one of the academic hallmark (black6 or balb/c) for publication purpose, one that represent your model (or so you

by Amygaz 8y ago

Any mice trial should use 4 different breeds: one of the academic hallmark (black6 or balb/c) for publication purpose, one that represent your model (or so you think) because that’s the logical thing to do, and a truly wild type one (captured in the wild) to capture the noise. Even this bias longevity piece needs to do that. This 4 breeds will all have different immune system, cognitive behavior and lifestyles, which are all central to aging.

woliveirajr 8y ago
That makes 3...
- magicalhippo 8y ago
  The 4th is a group of dead mice, to make sure you don't accidentally start a zombie apocalypse.
  - SubiculumCode 8y ago
    Jokes are discouraged on HN, but you did make me snort out loud.
klmr 8y ago
The issue with that approach is that you’d multiply the number of sacrificed animals by 3 (or 4, did you forget a breed?), for limited gains in insight. Your approach would be a lot more defensible if it didn’t involve killing vastly more animals, and a fairly large increase in research cost. These things are always a balance, and there’s no evidence that always using your approach would be worth it.
- ennisthemennis 8y ago
  I agree "any mice trial" is too strong a statement, and also 4 groups is kind of infeasible. But I do think there is not enough research on how these particular inbred mouse strains might bias research. Even the same strain sourced from different companies have produced different results, due to microbiome differences [1]. It's possible that we are way "overfitting" to these particular academic mice [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870873/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870873/