Rather than consisting of animals belonging to a single taxonomic category, various species of rodents are commonly referred to as mice. The common house mouse, Mus musculus, is native to Asia but spread throughout Europe centuries ago and migrated to other parts of the world with humans on ships.

Most house mice live in cooperative communities. The small creatures take turns cleaning each other and share holes, tunnels, and living spaces, although each builds an individual nest. As their name implies, house mice rarely inhabit fields or other open areas because they cannot readily compete with native North American rodents. They are, however, capable of quickly populating an area because they breed frequently and females tend to have large litters.

Laboratory mice are specialized strains of house mice, with scientists carefully controlling the traits they exhibit through prescribed breeding and genetic engineering. Since strains of laboratory mice are homogenous and standardized, genetic variability can be removed as a possible complicating factor, making experimental results more reliable. Mice have been utilized extensively to research various human disorders, such as cancer, blindness, multiple sclerosis, and seizures. Similarly beneficial for basic research purposes, mice have helped scientists acquire a better understanding of how vertebrate embryos develop and how modifications of the prenatal environment can affect a fetus.

Fetal Mouse Tissue in Phase Contrast - Revealing the beautiful morphology of tissue thin sections in phase contrast illumination, this image was captured from the same specimen illustrated above.

Fetal Mouse Tissue in DIC - As a complimentary technique to phase contrast microscopy, differential interference contrast often reveals specimen details that are masked by the halos present in phase contrast images.

Low-Magnification Mouse Tissue in DIC - Captured at a lower magnification than the image linked above, this digital photomicrograph displays the pseudo three-dimensional effect generated by the differential interference contrast technique.

High-Magnification Mouse Tissue in DIC - At higher magnifications, the shadow-cast effect is far more evident. Individual cells are visualized, and many of these cells are undergoing various stages of mitosis.

Fetal Mouse Tissue in Phase Contrast - Another beautiful example of unstained fetal mouse tissue captured with phase contrast illumination.