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March 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda FRIDAY, March 30 (HealthDay News) — Cold conditions may affect
the well-being of laboratory mice and influence the outcome of research
studies, a new study suggests.
Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine found that
nine of 10 drugs tested on mice that were housed in chilly temperatures
failed to work in people. They suggested this may be because being cold
triggers changes in mice’s immune function and slows their growth.
“If you want to design a drug that will help a patient in the hospital,
you cannot reasonably do that in animals that are cold-stressed and are
compensating with an elevated metabolic rate,” study author Joseph Garner,
an associate professor of comparative medicine, said in a Stanford news
release. “This will change all aspects of their physiology — such as how
fast the liver breaks down a drug — which can’t help but increase the
chance that a drug will behave differently in mice and in humans.”
The study authors argued that one simple way to correct this problem
would be to allow laboratory mice to warm up, which would make them more
physiologically comparable to people.
“Why not let them do what they do in the wild, which is build nests?
Mice can happily infest a meat freezer, with temperatures far below zero,
but they survive and breed because they build these wonderful nests,”
Garner said.
To test their theory, the researchers created sets of two cages linked
by a small tube for 36 male and 36 female mice of three common strains. In
each of the sets, one cage was kept at a cool 68 degrees Fahrenheit and
was equipped with various amounts of shredded paper that the mice could
use to make nests to keep warm and provide themselves with shelter. The
connected cage had no nesting material and was kept at one of six
temperatures, ranging from 68 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
The mice were allowed to choose which side of the cage they wanted to
use. Although the strain and sex of the mice played a role in their
preferences, the study revealed none of the mice chose to stay cold.
Instead, whenever they had the option the mice chose to move to a warmer
cage.
The mice also moved nesting material from colder cages to warmer cages,
suggesting nests serve as more than a source of warmth for mice. The
researchers noted that nests could also be a source of physical comfort or
protection for mice that relieves their stress or anxiety.
The study authors added that nests also offer clues about how the mice
are doing physically. “The shape of the nest tells an experienced person
whether the animals are too hot or too cold, whether they are sick or
whether they are about to give birth,” Garner said. “Once you learn how to
‘speak mouse nest,’ the nest is a wonderful tool that anyone can use to
assess the general state of the mouse.”
The study, published online March 30 in the journal PLoS ONE,
pointed out that simply raising the temperature in research laboratories
wouldn’t work because the mice would get too aggressive. The researchers
concluded that laboratory mice should be routinely supplied with as much
as 10 grams of nesting material.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute provides more information on laboratory mice.
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