Experiments done in Black-6 mice: what does it mean?

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Research
• Laboratory Animal Science
• Behavioral Neuroscience

Background:

• Low replicability in animal experiments is a significant challenge in biomedicine.
• Isogenic mice, particularly the C57BL/6 strain, are recommended to improve consistency.
• C57BL/6 mice are available as distinct substrains from various vendors, with potential uninvestigated differences.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate behavioral differences between C57BL/6J and C57BL/6N mouse substrains.
• To assess the impact of vendor origin on these substrain-specific behaviors.
• To highlight implications for reproducibility and generalizability in animal research.

Main Methods:

• Characterization of female C57BL/6J and C57BL/6N mice from three European vendors.
• Utilized a battery of behavioral tests to assess variations.
• Statistical analysis to determine substrain and vendor effects.

Main Results:

• Confirmed substantial behavioral differences between C57BL/6J and C57BL/6N substrains.
• Demonstrated that vendor origin significantly influenced these behavioral differences.
• Observed significant vendor or substrain-vendor interaction effects across all behavioral tests.

Conclusions:

• Precise international nomenclature for mouse strains is crucial for accurate reporting.
• Generalizing findings from a single mouse substrain may be limited due to vendor-specific genetic and environmental factors.
• Including diverse substrains can enhance the generalizability and translational potential of research findings.