ELi5: Why do mice get used in a lot of lab experiments?
In: Biology
In addition to the other comments regarding similarities to human genes, the mice used in labs are not the same as the ones you might buy at the pet store. They’re specially bred for labs so that they are genetically very similar to one another to minimize the effects of individual genetic differences that might affect the test results. They are exactly the same as one another as much as is possible.
They share 95-98% of genes with humans. They typically get the same diseases and react the same way to medications for this reason.
Tl,dr: They are basically human.
“The mouse has many similarities to humans in terms of anatomy, physiology and genetics. The mouse genome is very similar to our own, making mouse genetic research particularly useful for the study of human diseases. Mice are cost effective because they are cheap and easy to look after. Adult mice multiply quickly.” – Copied from yourgenome.org
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