Animal Housing and Husbandry
Objective: Housing and maintenance of female C57BL/6 mice under controlled environmental conditions for experimental use
This is a Animal Housing and Husbandry protocol using mouse as the model organism. The procedure involves 6 procedural steps, 1 equipment items, 6 materials. Extracted from a 2022 paper published in Nature Communications.
Model and subjects
mouse • C57BL/6 • female • 6-8 weeks
Study window
~8 week study window | ~24 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Acquire mice • House mice in cages • Establish light-dark cycle
Primary readouts
- Mouse health and welfare under controlled housing conditions
- Maintenance of appropriate environmental parameters
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
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- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Acquire mice
Purchase female C57BL/6 mice aged 6-8 weeks from vendor
Note: Mice obtained from Nanjing Pengsheng Biological Technology Co.
View evidence from paper
“Female C57BL/6 mice (6–8 weeks) were purchased from Nanjing Pengsheng Biological Technology Co.”
House mice in cages
Place mice in individually ventilated cages at a density of five mice per cage
Note: Maintain group housing with five mice per cage
View evidence from paper
“Mice were housed in individually ventilated cages with five mice per cage”
Establish light-dark cycle
Maintain a regular 12-hour light and 12-hour dark cycle with lights on from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and lights off from 8:00 PM to 8:00 AM
Note: Consistent daily schedule for circadian rhythm maintenance
View evidence from paper
“kept on a regular 12-h:12-h light:dark cycle (8:00 AM–8:00 PM light; 8:00 PM–8:00 AM dark)”
Control temperature
Maintain ambient temperature at 21°C with a tolerance of ±1°C
Note: Precise temperature control required for consistent experimental conditions
View evidence from paper
“with controlled temperature (21 ± 1°C)”
Control humidity
Maintain relative humidity between 40% and 70%
Note: Humidity range must be maintained throughout housing period
View evidence from paper
“and humidity (40–70%)”
Provide food and water
Supply food and water ad libitum to all mice
Note: Unrestricted access to both food and water
View evidence from paper
“Food and water were supplied ad libitum”