Standard temperatures in mouse housing units cause chronic mild stress in mice as they can induce the activation of thermogenesis in order to maintain normal body temperature. The authors dub this 'subthermoneutral' stress and show that it reduces the anticancer effects of the immune response, leading to increased tumour formation, growth and metastasis. This indicates that housing temperatures are a noteworthy confounding factor and must be considered in the design of future tumour studies with an immune component in mice.
References
Kokolus, K. M. et al. Baseline tumor growth and immune control in laboratory mice are significantly influenced by subthermoneutral housing temperature. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1304291110 (2013)
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Lokody, I. Thermal stress in mice. Nat Rev Cancer 14, 11 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3669
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3669
