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Comparative survival of C57BL/6J mice on two commonly used mouse diets

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Abstract

Survival of C57BL/6J male mice was found to improve when fed Old Guilford (OG) mouse food as compared to Purina (P) mouse diet. The median life span increased 3.9%, the longest-lived decile increased 17.3% and the maximum life span by 18.5%. This occurred in spite of the fact that the peak weight attained by mice on the OG diet was 14.7% higher than the maximum weight on the P diet. Mean survival times were 852 days on the P diet and 901 days for the OG diet. The increase in the maximum life span was greater than that for the mean or median, with 933 days for the P diet and 1106 days for OG.

The two different commercially available diets were found to differ in their trace element content. The P diet was higher than the OG diet by 908% for aluminum, 1% for boron, 22.3% for cadmium, 231% for calcium, 29.2% for copper and 100% for iron. In addition to these differences in trace element content, other factors may have been involved in determining life span such as differences in food consumption or in the caloric content of the two diets.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Masonic Medical Research Laboratory, Utica, NY, 13501

    Harold R. Massie, Valerie R. Aiello & Syamala M. Sternick

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  1. Harold R. Massie
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  2. Valerie R. Aiello
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  3. Syamala M. Sternick
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Massie, H.R., Aiello, V.R. & Sternick, S.M. Comparative survival of C57BL/6J mice on two commonly used mouse diets. AGE 14, 53–56 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02434838

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02434838

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