Dear Dr. Saroj Kumar Khan,
Mice is used in experiments for the simple reason that they are small and breed easily with short pregnancies. They can be housed easily, are relatively easy to handle and transport.
Moreover, mice share common genetic features with humans. So, researchers can manipulate the mouse genome, model specific diseases, test new drugs, and investigate the genetics of diseases before trying them on human. Also, mice are extremely diverse, meaning that commercial breeders can select for individual traits to create inbred strains with unique characteristics. For example, the CBA mouse has a low incidence of mammary tumour development, whereas the BALB/c nude mouse is immunodeficient, since it lacks a thymus. These kinds of breed-specific properties are useful, as they allow researchers to focus on specific diseases.
As mentioned earlier, since mice share approximately 85% to 90% of their genes with humans, modifying mouse DNA is a powerful method for creating animal models of human disease. Techniques like the Cre/lox system and the CRISPR gene editing tool allow researchers to delete, activate or repair genes, thus recreating human disease in the mouse or examining what happens when they correct a mutation.
You must have heard about “knock-out” mouse where in the gene is either removed or inactivated, and the "transgenic" mice where the mice is made to express human genes or carry human cells. In this way, researchers can create “humanized” mice that respond physiologically almost like us, letting researchers look at the way disease changes a human body and how it responds to treatment.
So, mice are a cost-effective and an efficient research tool providing so many options because of which they are preferred by researchers for in vivo experiments.
Regards,
Malcolm Nobre
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