Does Age Matter? The Impact of Rodent Age on Study Outcomes

Samuel Jackson, Nick Andrews, Doug Ball, Llaria Bellatntuono, James Gray, Lamia Hachoumi, Alan Holmes, Judy Latcham, Anja Petrie, Paul Potter, Andrew Rice, Alison Ritchie, Michelle Stewart, Carol Strepka, Mark Yeoman, Kathryn Chapman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Rodent models produce data which underpin biomedical research and nonclinical drug trials, but translation from rodents into successful clinical outcomes is often lacking. There is a growing body of evidence showing that improving experimental design is key to improving the predictive nature of rodent studies and reducing the number of animals used in research. Age, one important factor in experimental design, is often poorly reported and can be overlooked. The authors conducted a survey to assess the age used for a range of models, and the reasoning for age choice. From 297 respondents providing 611 responses, researchers reported using rodents most often in the 6-20 week age range regardless of the biology being studied. The age referred to as ‘adult’ by respondents varied between 6 and 20 weeks. Practical reasons for the choice of rodent age were frequently given, with increased cost associated with using older animals and maintenance of historical data comparability being two important limiting factors. These results highlight that choice of age is inconsistent across the research community and often not based on the development or cellular ageing of the system being studied. This could potentially result in decreased scientific validity and increased experimental variability. In some cases the use of older animals may be beneficial. Increased scientific rigour in the choice of the age of rodent may increase the translation of rodent models to humans.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)160-169
Number of pages10
JournalLaboratory Animals
Volume51
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 15 Jun 2016

Bibliographical note

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Keywords

  • rodent
  • age
  • experimental design
  • development
  • senescence

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