Laboratory Animals Exhibit Slower Epigenetic Aging than Wild Animals

Source https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2025/06/laboratory-animals-exhibit-slower-epigenetic-aging-than-wild-animals/

Researchers here report on the differences in epigenetic aging between mice kept in standard laboratory facilities versus mice allowed to roam a more natural habitat with minimal supervision. The laboratory mice aged more slowly, which one might theorize has to do with greater degrees of care and attention from the laboratory staff. However, the researchers argue that the natural habitat imposes greater stresses upon the mice in various ways, and that in turn accelerates the epigenetic changes characteristic of aging.

We examined differences in age-associated methylation changes between traditionally laboratory-reared mice and “rewilded” C57BL/6J mice, which lived in an outdoor field environment with enhanced ecological realism. Our results lead us to two conclusions. First, the rate of epigenetic changes in the most used biomedical <a href="ht…

What Do You Think?

comments