Translating animal model research: Does it matter that our rodents are cold?

© 2014 Int. Union Physiol. Sci./Am. Physiol. Soc. Does it matter that rodents used as preclinical models of human biology are routinely housed below their thermoneutral zone? We compile evidence showing that such rodents are cold-stressed, hypermetabolic, hypertensive, sleep-deprived, obesity-resistant, fever-resistant, aging-resistant, and tumorprone compared with mice housed at thermoneutrality. The same genotype of mouse has a very different phenotype and response to physiological or pharmacological intervention when raised below or at thermoneutrality.