Pub Date : 2025-12-24DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01670-w
Jorge Ferreira
{"title":"Hyperhomocysteinemia presents sexual dymorphism in mice","authors":"Jorge Ferreira","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01670-w","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01670-w","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"7-7"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145814588","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-24DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01676-4
Alexandra Le Bras
{"title":"Tattoo ink and immunity","authors":"Alexandra Le Bras","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01676-4","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01676-4","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"8-8"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145814586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-24DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01675-5
Alexandra Le Bras
{"title":"Estrogen’s role in reinforcement learning","authors":"Alexandra Le Bras","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01675-5","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01675-5","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"8-8"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145814596","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-18DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01664-8
Zachary McAdams, Kevin Gustafson, Aaron Ericsson
The gut microbiota (GM) affects host development, behavior and disease susceptibility. Biomedical research investigating GM-mediated influences on host phenotypes often involves collecting fecal samples from laboratory mice. Many environmental factors can affect the composition of the GM in mice. While efforts are made to minimize this variation, biological and technical variability exists and may influence outcomes. Here we employed a hierarchical fecal sampling strategy (that is, sequenced multiple libraries generated from multiple pellets collected from multiple mice) to quantify the effect size of biological and technical variation and to provide practical guidance for the development of microbiome studies involving laboratory mice. We found that while biological and technical sources of variation contribute significant variability to alpha- and beta-diversity outcomes, their effect size is 3–30-times lower than that of the experimental variable in the context of an experimental group with high intergroup variability. After quantifying the variability of alpha-diversity metrics at the technical and biological levels, we simulated whether sequencing multiple fecal samples from mice improves effect size in a two-group experimental design. Our simulation determined that collecting five fecal samples per mouse increased effect size, reducing the minimum number of animals per group required by 5% while dramatically increasing sequencing costs. Our data suggest that the effect size of biological and technical factors may contribute appreciable variability to an experimental paradigm with relatively low mean differences. In addition, repeated sampling improves statistical power; however, its application is probably impractical given the increased sequencing costs. This study explores how biological, technical and experimental factors affect gut microbiota variability in mouse fecal samples. Repeated sampling improves statistical power but raises costs, highlighting the practical limitations of this approach.
{"title":"Biological and technical variability in mouse microbiota analysis and implications for sample size determination","authors":"Zachary McAdams, Kevin Gustafson, Aaron Ericsson","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01664-8","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01664-8","url":null,"abstract":"The gut microbiota (GM) affects host development, behavior and disease susceptibility. Biomedical research investigating GM-mediated influences on host phenotypes often involves collecting fecal samples from laboratory mice. Many environmental factors can affect the composition of the GM in mice. While efforts are made to minimize this variation, biological and technical variability exists and may influence outcomes. Here we employed a hierarchical fecal sampling strategy (that is, sequenced multiple libraries generated from multiple pellets collected from multiple mice) to quantify the effect size of biological and technical variation and to provide practical guidance for the development of microbiome studies involving laboratory mice. We found that while biological and technical sources of variation contribute significant variability to alpha- and beta-diversity outcomes, their effect size is 3–30-times lower than that of the experimental variable in the context of an experimental group with high intergroup variability. After quantifying the variability of alpha-diversity metrics at the technical and biological levels, we simulated whether sequencing multiple fecal samples from mice improves effect size in a two-group experimental design. Our simulation determined that collecting five fecal samples per mouse increased effect size, reducing the minimum number of animals per group required by 5% while dramatically increasing sequencing costs. Our data suggest that the effect size of biological and technical factors may contribute appreciable variability to an experimental paradigm with relatively low mean differences. In addition, repeated sampling improves statistical power; however, its application is probably impractical given the increased sequencing costs. This study explores how biological, technical and experimental factors affect gut microbiota variability in mouse fecal samples. Repeated sampling improves statistical power but raises costs, highlighting the practical limitations of this approach.","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"29-34"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41684-025-01664-8.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145770628","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-17DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01650-0
Kirtan Joshi, Kanve N. Suvilesh, Nagabhishek Sirpu Natesh, Yariswamy Manjunath, Jared Coberly, Sarah Schlink, Jeffrey R. Kunin, Randall S. Prather, Kristin Whitworth, Benjamin Nelson, Jeffrey N. Bryan, Timothy Hoffman, Mojgan Golzy, Murugesan Raju, Emma Teixeiro, Bhanu P. Telugu, Jussuf T. Kaifi, Satyanarayana Rachagani
There remains a need for animal models with human translatability in lung cancer (LC) research. Findings in pigs can have a substantial impact owing to their similar anatomy and physiology to humans. Here we present a bronchoscopically induced LC model in Oncopigs carrying inducible KRASG12D and TP53R167H mutations. A total of 12 Oncopigs underwent 29 injections via flexible bronchoscopy: 18 adenovirus–Cre recombinase gene (AdCre) inductions were performed endobronchially (n = 6) and transbronchially (n = 12), and 11 control injections were performed without AdCre. Oncopigs underwent serial chest CT with clinical follow-up for 29 weeks. Lung and organ tissues underwent histopathology, immunohistochemistry and RNA sequencing with comparative analysis to human LC data. All 18 sites of AdCre injections had lung consolidations on computed tomography imaging. Inductions led to an overall success rate of 77.8%, including both invasive cancer (61.1%) and carcinoma in situ (16.7%). Transbronchial injections led to histopathologic invasive cancer and/or carcinoma in situ in 11/12 (91.7%) and invasive cancer in 8/12 (66.6%). Endobronchial inductions led to invasive cancer in 3/6 (50%). A soft tissue metastasis was observed in one Oncopig. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the expression of Pan-Cytokeratin (Pan-CK)+ in epithelial cancer cells, with macrophage and T cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Transcriptome comparison showed 54.3% overlap with human LC, while KRAS-mutant mouse LC had 29.88% overlap with human LC. The immunocompetent Oncopig model has a high rate of LC following bronchoscopic transbronchial induction. An overlap of the Oncopig LC transcriptome with the human LC transcriptome was noted. This pig model of LC is expected to have high clinical translatability. This study presents a bronchoscopically induced lung cancer model in Oncopigs with inducible KRAS and TP53 mutations. Showing high induction rates and human-like tumoral gene expression, the model offers a translational complement to rodent systems.
{"title":"Characterization of a bronchoscopically induced transgenic lung cancer pig model for human translatability","authors":"Kirtan Joshi, Kanve N. Suvilesh, Nagabhishek Sirpu Natesh, Yariswamy Manjunath, Jared Coberly, Sarah Schlink, Jeffrey R. Kunin, Randall S. Prather, Kristin Whitworth, Benjamin Nelson, Jeffrey N. Bryan, Timothy Hoffman, Mojgan Golzy, Murugesan Raju, Emma Teixeiro, Bhanu P. Telugu, Jussuf T. Kaifi, Satyanarayana Rachagani","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01650-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01650-0","url":null,"abstract":"There remains a need for animal models with human translatability in lung cancer (LC) research. Findings in pigs can have a substantial impact owing to their similar anatomy and physiology to humans. Here we present a bronchoscopically induced LC model in Oncopigs carrying inducible KRASG12D and TP53R167H mutations. A total of 12 Oncopigs underwent 29 injections via flexible bronchoscopy: 18 adenovirus–Cre recombinase gene (AdCre) inductions were performed endobronchially (n = 6) and transbronchially (n = 12), and 11 control injections were performed without AdCre. Oncopigs underwent serial chest CT with clinical follow-up for 29 weeks. Lung and organ tissues underwent histopathology, immunohistochemistry and RNA sequencing with comparative analysis to human LC data. All 18 sites of AdCre injections had lung consolidations on computed tomography imaging. Inductions led to an overall success rate of 77.8%, including both invasive cancer (61.1%) and carcinoma in situ (16.7%). Transbronchial injections led to histopathologic invasive cancer and/or carcinoma in situ in 11/12 (91.7%) and invasive cancer in 8/12 (66.6%). Endobronchial inductions led to invasive cancer in 3/6 (50%). A soft tissue metastasis was observed in one Oncopig. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the expression of Pan-Cytokeratin (Pan-CK)+ in epithelial cancer cells, with macrophage and T cell infiltration in the tumor microenvironment. Transcriptome comparison showed 54.3% overlap with human LC, while KRAS-mutant mouse LC had 29.88% overlap with human LC. The immunocompetent Oncopig model has a high rate of LC following bronchoscopic transbronchial induction. An overlap of the Oncopig LC transcriptome with the human LC transcriptome was noted. This pig model of LC is expected to have high clinical translatability. This study presents a bronchoscopically induced lung cancer model in Oncopigs with inducible KRAS and TP53 mutations. Showing high induction rates and human-like tumoral gene expression, the model offers a translational complement to rodent systems.","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"12-20"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.nature.comhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41684-025-01650-0.pdf","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145770630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01652-y
Hernan Baldassarre, Werner G. Glanzner, Karina Gutierrez, Reesha Raja, Albert H. K. Fok, Abigail Shea, Anne Pellegrin, Ioan Cozma, Lucie Côté, Keith Murai, Vilceu Bordignon
Marmosets are a valuable model for studying human disorders, but developing specific genetic models requires efficient protocols for embryo genomic manipulation. Although marmoset embryos have been produced in vitro, oocyte retrieval traditionally involves extended recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) treatment (9–10 days), surgical laparotomy and ovarian exposure, limiting repeat procedures. Here we evaluated a simpler, cost-effective ovarian stimulation protocol using porcine pituitary FSH, combined with laparoscopic ovum pick-up (LOPU), for in vitro production of marmoset embryos via in vitro fertilization (IVF) and somatic cell nuclear transfer. A total of 3,922 oocytes were retrieved from 129 LOPU procedures, averaging 30.4 oocytes per LOPU, with 85.5% (26.0 per LOPU) graded as viable. The procedure was safe, with no adverse effects observed in ovaries or fimbria after up to nine LOPU sessions. Most collected oocytes were meiotically immature and matured in vitro before use. Following IVF, approximately 40% of oocytes cleaved, and 40% of cleaved embryos developed to the expanded blastocyst stage. LOPU-derived oocytes also supported somatic cell nuclear transfer, with 69.8% of embryos cleaving and 21.8% forming blastocysts. IVF-derived blastocyst quality was assessed by total cell count, immunodetection of SOX2 (inner cell mass) and CDX2 (trophectoderm), and cryotolerance. Embryo transfer to recipients resulted in successful live births. These findings demonstrate that a simplified pituitary FSH protocol followed by LOPU is an efficient, less invasive and safe method for retrieving developmentally competent marmoset oocytes, offering a promising approach for advancing marmoset-based research in disease modeling and reproductive biotechnology. This study shows an efficient approach for in vitro production of marmoset embryos following an optimized ovarian stimulation protocol combined with laparoscopic ovum pick-up, potentially facilitating reproductive biotechnology in marmosets.
{"title":"Efficient production of common marmoset embryos with in vitro fertilization and somatic cell nuclear transfer following optimized hormonal stimulation and laparoscopic oocyte collection","authors":"Hernan Baldassarre, Werner G. Glanzner, Karina Gutierrez, Reesha Raja, Albert H. K. Fok, Abigail Shea, Anne Pellegrin, Ioan Cozma, Lucie Côté, Keith Murai, Vilceu Bordignon","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01652-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01652-y","url":null,"abstract":"Marmosets are a valuable model for studying human disorders, but developing specific genetic models requires efficient protocols for embryo genomic manipulation. Although marmoset embryos have been produced in vitro, oocyte retrieval traditionally involves extended recombinant human follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) treatment (9–10 days), surgical laparotomy and ovarian exposure, limiting repeat procedures. Here we evaluated a simpler, cost-effective ovarian stimulation protocol using porcine pituitary FSH, combined with laparoscopic ovum pick-up (LOPU), for in vitro production of marmoset embryos via in vitro fertilization (IVF) and somatic cell nuclear transfer. A total of 3,922 oocytes were retrieved from 129 LOPU procedures, averaging 30.4 oocytes per LOPU, with 85.5% (26.0 per LOPU) graded as viable. The procedure was safe, with no adverse effects observed in ovaries or fimbria after up to nine LOPU sessions. Most collected oocytes were meiotically immature and matured in vitro before use. Following IVF, approximately 40% of oocytes cleaved, and 40% of cleaved embryos developed to the expanded blastocyst stage. LOPU-derived oocytes also supported somatic cell nuclear transfer, with 69.8% of embryos cleaving and 21.8% forming blastocysts. IVF-derived blastocyst quality was assessed by total cell count, immunodetection of SOX2 (inner cell mass) and CDX2 (trophectoderm), and cryotolerance. Embryo transfer to recipients resulted in successful live births. These findings demonstrate that a simplified pituitary FSH protocol followed by LOPU is an efficient, less invasive and safe method for retrieving developmentally competent marmoset oocytes, offering a promising approach for advancing marmoset-based research in disease modeling and reproductive biotechnology. This study shows an efficient approach for in vitro production of marmoset embryos following an optimized ovarian stimulation protocol combined with laparoscopic ovum pick-up, potentially facilitating reproductive biotechnology in marmosets.","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"21-28"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728598","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1038/s41684-025-01666-6
Ana Isabel Santos, Nuno Henrique Franco
On March 18-19, 2025, the European Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS) held its first international conference, at the Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands. The meeting gathered course organisers, accreditors, regulators, educators, researchers and animal welfare specialists from across Europe and beyond, who discussed ETPLAS contributions for advancing education and training in laboratory animal science, as well as its goals for the future.
{"title":"ETPLAS Conference: Shaping the future of LAS education and training","authors":"Ana Isabel Santos, Nuno Henrique Franco","doi":"10.1038/s41684-025-01666-6","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41684-025-01666-6","url":null,"abstract":"On March 18-19, 2025, the European Training Platform for Laboratory Animal Science (ETPLAS) held its first international conference, at the Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands. The meeting gathered course organisers, accreditors, regulators, educators, researchers and animal welfare specialists from across Europe and beyond, who discussed ETPLAS contributions for advancing education and training in laboratory animal science, as well as its goals for the future.","PeriodicalId":17936,"journal":{"name":"Lab Animal","volume":"55 1","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145728439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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