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  • TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

The overlooked variable in animal studies: why diet makes a difference

Careful consideration and documentation of laboratory animals’ diets will boost the reproducibility of experiments.
  1. Jyoti Madhusoodanan

    1. Jyoti Madhusoodanan is a science writer in Portland, Oregon.

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A scientist inspects a cuttlefish in a water tank at a research facility

The behaviour of cuttlefish and other cephalopods can be influenced by their diets. Credit: Adam Glanzman/The Washington Post/Getty

In the 1980s, two groups of researchers asked a seemingly simple question: can animals live longer by eating less? A team at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, and another at the University of Wisconsin–Madison each fed rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) diets with 30% fewer calories than given to their control animals. The Wisconsin-based team found that caloric restriction helped the monkeys to live longer, healthier lives1,2; the NIH team observed no such effect3.

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Nature 605, 778-779 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01393-9

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