Inbred and outbred mice have equivalent variability in a cockroach allergen-induced model of asthma

Outbred mice traditionally are considered to display high variability, thereby limiting their use in some studies. Researchers frequently are encouraged to use inbred strains of mice because of the greater homogeneity of these experimental animals. We compared the pulmonary inflammatory response of inbred BALB/cJ mice to that of outbred HSD-ICR mice by measuring multiple variables, including cytokines, chemokines, number of pulmonary inflammatory cells, and respiratory parameters. Cockroach allergens induced significant pulmonary inflammation in both BALB and ICR mice. Our comparisons of the coefficients of variance for 148 discrete data sets for each strain or stock indicated that BALB and ICR mice have roughly equivalent intrastrain or -stock variability in our model of asthma-like pulmonary inflammation. The average coefficient of variance, calculated as the ratio of the SD to the mean of a data set, was 0.35 ± 0.34 for BALB mice compared with 0.31 ± 0.32 for ICR mice. In conclusion, inbred BALB and outbred ICR mice have roughly equivalent intrastrain or -stock variability in a murine model of asthma-like pulmonary inflammation.