Frequent exposure to varied home cage sizes alters pain sensitivity and some key inflammation-related biomarkers

•The adapted method of changing animals’ home cage during experiment was tested for suitability in animal based experiment.•The method allowed variation in markers for oxidative stress and inflammation.•Frequent exposure to varied home cage sizes decreased pain sensitivity to noxious thermal-, chemical- and mechanical-stimulus.•This adapted procedure could lead to false results, thus affecting accuracy and reproducibility in animal based experiment. Nature and size of rodent cages vary from one laboratory or country to another. Little is however known about the physiological implications of exposure to diverse cage sizes in animal-based experiments. Here, two groups of male Swiss mice (Control group – Cage stationed, and Test group – Cage migrated) were used for this study. The cage-migrated mice were exposed daily to various cage sizes used across laboratories in Nigeria while the cage-stationed mice exposed daily to different but the same cage size and shape. At the end of the 30 days exposure, top-rated paradigms were used to profile changes in physiological behaviours, and this was followed by evaluation of histological and biochemical metrics. The study showed a significant (p