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. 2023 Jun;45(3):2079-2084.
doi: 10.1007/s11357-023-00775-9. Epub 2023 Apr 20.

Chow diet in mouse aging studies: nothing regular about it

Jennifer Lee  1 , Chloe Purello  2 , Sarah L Booth  2 , Brian Bennett  3   4 , Christopher D Wiley  2 , Ron Korstanje  5
Affiliations

Chow diet in mouse aging studies: nothing regular about it

Jennifer Lee et al. Geroscience. 2023 Jun.

Abstract

Chow diet is used in the majority of rodent studies and, although assumed to be standardized for dietary source and nutritional contents, it varies widely across commercial formulations. Similarly, current approaches to study aging in rodents involve a single-diet formulation across the lifespan and overlook age-specific nutritional requirements, which may have long-term effects on aging processes. Together, these nutrition-based disparities represent major gaps in geroscience research, affecting the interpretation and reproducibility of the studies. This perspective aims to raise awareness on the importance of rodent diet formulation and proposes that geroscientists include detailed descriptions of all experimental diets and feeding protocols. Detailed reporting of diets will enhance rigor and reproducibility of aging rodent studies and lead to more translational outcomes in geroscience research.

Keywords: Aging; Chow diet; Dietary source.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

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