Research data ยท Motor function and endurance

Grip strength

From 2021 to 2025, 1,354 animal research papers mentioned grip strength in their title or abstract, ranking it 13th of the 90 tests we track.

That is 2.9 times the 459 papers of 2011 to 2015. Papers that mention any of the 90 tests grew to 1.2 times as many over the same span.

1,354 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned the test
2.9 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015
13th of the 90 tests by papers from 2021 to 2025
71% of these papers used mice and 25% used rats

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention grip strength, by year, 2001 to 2026

The 2026 bar counts papers added to PubMed by November 8, 2026.

  • Papers in a full year
  • 2026 so far
Show the counts for each year
Papers by year
YearPapers
200117
200216
200327
200434
200525
200629
200733
200841
200949
201061
201164
201292
201393
2014106
2015104
2016109
2017133
2018154
2019178
2020192
2021219
2022251
2023240
2024254
2025390
2026 (part year)403

Papers that mention grip strength in mice and in rats, by year, 2001 to 2025

  • Mouse
  • Rat
Show the counts for each year and species
Papers by year, mice and rats
YearMouseRat
2001107
2002106
20031114
20041416
20051211
2006206
20071714
20082316
20092319
20103328
20113035
20125538
20136824
20146638
20156829
20167140
20177549
201810547
201912248
202013154
202115055
202217170
202316957
202418465
202529390

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 1,354 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
967 papers 71%
Rat
337 papers 25%
Other animals
69 papers 5%
Nonhuman primate
7 papers 1%
Zebrafish
3 papers under 1%
Fruit fly
1 paper under 1%

โ€œOther animalsโ€ counts papers that use none of the other species in this chart.

Strains and genetic lines

Strain names come from the MeSH terms PubMed adds when it indexes a paper. PubMed has indexed 1,080 of the 1,354 papers, so each bar is a share of those 1,080.

C57BL mice
325 papers 30%
Sprague-Dawley rats
106 papers 10%
Wistar rats
79 papers 7%
Knockout mice
76 papers 7%
Transgenic mice
52 papers 5%
mdx mice
45 papers 4%
BALB/c mice
15 papers 1%
ICR mice
15 papers 1%

A paper indexed under two of these headings, such as knockout mice and a strain, counts under both.

Disease models these papers study

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention grip strength and study that disease model, with its share of the 1,354 papers. The model comes from a paper's MeSH terms. For a paper PubMed has not indexed, it comes from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, when that service finds the disease in the title or abstract. A paper can count under more than one model.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 by disease model

116 papers 9%
65 papers 5%
57 papers 4%
48 papers 4%
27 papers 2%
27 papers 2%

Tests mentioned alongside grip strength

Each bar counts the papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests, with its share of the 1,354 papers that mention grip strength.

Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention both tests

191 papers 14%
98 papers 7%
63 papers 5%
45 papers 3%
42 papers 3%
37 papers 3%
30 papers 2%

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

These papers from 2021 to 2025 mention grip strength and have the most citations, as counted by NIH's iCite on November 5, 2026.

  1. The Kidney-Related Effects of Polystyrene Microplastics on Human Kidney Proximal Tubular Epithelial Cells HK-2 and Male C57BL/6 Mice.

    Environ Health Perspect, 2021. 262 citations.

  2. Passive transfer of fibromyalgia symptoms from patients to mice.

    J Clin Invest, 2021. 230 citations.

  3. Functional Aging in Male C57BL/6J Mice Across the Life-Span: A Systematic Behavioral Analysis of Motor, Emotional, and Memory Function to Define an Aging Phenotype.

    Front Aging Neurosci, 2021. 160 citations.

  4. Triptolide prevents LPS-induced skeletal muscle atrophy via inhibiting NF-ฮบB/TNF-ฮฑ and regulating protein synthesis/degradation pathway.

    Br J Pharmacol, 2021. 158 citations.

  5. Irisin ameliorates age-associated sarcopenia and metabolic dysfunction.

    J Cachexia Sarcopenia Muscle, 2023. 153 citations.

How we counted

A count is the number of animal research papers whose title or abstract mentions one of the test's search terms. It is not a count of experiments, labs or animals.

A paper that mentions grip strength only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low. The count includes 14 reviews. For 274 of the 1,354 papers, PubMed's indexing gave no species, so the species came from PubTator 3 finding one in the title or abstract.

The test's search terms are in the test list download. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More motor function and endurance tests

These motor function and endurance tests also have a page, with their papers from 2021 to 2025. Each test with 30 or more papers gets one.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 10). Grip strength in published research [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/grip-strength

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_grip_strength_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Grip strength in published research},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/data/behavioral-tests/grip-strength},
  note = {Data set, released November 10, 2026},
}

Apparatus for grip strength

Our store sells one product for grip strength.

Shop the apparatus

Papers that name our apparatus

We keep our own list of published papers whose text names our equipment. Those that mention grip strength in the title or abstract are already in the counts above.

  • 11 papers from 2024 to 2026 name our Grip Strength Test. See the papers