Research data ยท Animal model

Sepsis

From 2021 to 2025, 161 animal research papers mentioned sepsis and at least one behavioral test.

That is 6.2 times the 26 papers of 2011 to 2015. Between the same two periods, all the animal research papers that mention any of the 90 tests we count grew more slowly, to 1.2 times as many.

161 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 mentioned sepsis and a test
6.2 times as many papers as in 2011 to 2015
47% of these papers mention the Morris water maze
7% of the 2,320 animal research papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention sepsis also mention a test

The tests mentioned with sepsis

The Y-maze appears in 20% of these papers and in 6.2% of all 32,277 papers that mention a test. That makes it 3.3 times as common in this research. Each bar is one test, with how many of the 161 papers from 2021 to 2025 mention it, and what share that is. A paper that mentions two tests counts under both.

The 15 tests these papers mention most

75 papers 47%
40 papers 25%
33 papers 20%
31 papers 19%
17 papers 11%
8 papers 5%
8 papers 5%
6 papers 4%
3 papers 2%
2 papers 1%
1 paper 1%
All 28 tests these papers mention
Papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention sepsis and each test
TestPapersShare of the 161 papers
Morris water maze7547%
Open field4025%
Novel object recognition4025%
Y-maze3320%
Fear conditioning3119%
Elevated plus maze1711%
Tail suspension test138%
Barnes maze85%
Forced swim test85%
Passive avoidance74%
Grip strength64%
Treadmill running42%
Light-dark box32%
Marble burying21%
Splash test11%
Radial arm maze11%
Hot plate11%
Formalin test11%
Writhing test11%
Nest building11%
Step-down avoidance11%
T-maze11%
Pole test11%
Active avoidance (shuttle box)11%
Three-chamber sociability test11%
Olfactory tests11%
Sucrose preference test11%
Rotarod11%

Tests named in 30 or more of these papers link to a page on that test with sepsis. To count the papers that mention two or more tests together, use the test battery tool.

Papers by year

Animal research papers that mention sepsis and a behavioral test, 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
20010
20020
20030
20040
20051
20060
20073
20082
20093
20101
20112
20122
20137
20147
20158
20165
201710
20186
201913
202022
202118
202233
202343
202437
202530
2026 (part year)31

Disease models in papers that mention sepsis

Each bar is one disease model, with how many of the 161 papers from 2021 to 2025 are tagged with it, and what share that is. The model comes from the paper's MeSH terms, the subject headings the National Library of Medicine adds when it indexes a paper. A paper without MeSH terms gets its model from PubTator 3, NCBI's text-mining service, if PubTator 3 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

Which species the papers used

Each bar is a share of the 161 papers from 2021 to 2025. A paper can use more than one species, so the shares can add to more than 100%.

Species

Mouse
122 papers 76%
Rat
38 papers 24%
Other animals
2 papers 1%

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

NIH funding

6 of the 161 papers (4%) had NIH funding. NIA, the National Institute on Aging, funded the most, 5 of them. A paper counts as NIH-funded when its PubMed record lists an NIH grant, or when NIH RePORTER links it to an NIH project.

NIH-funded papers by institute

NIANational Institute on Aging
5 papers 83%
NICHDEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
2 papers 33%
NIMHNational Institute of Mental Health
2 papers 33%
NINDSNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
1 paper 17%
NCRRNational Center for Research Resources, which closed in 2011; papers still list its grants
1 paper 17%
NHLBINational Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
1 paper 17%

Each share is of the NIH-funded papers. A paper with grants from two institutes counts under both.

The most cited papers from 2021 to 2025

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

  1. Dexmedetomidine attenuates sepsis-associated inflammation and encephalopathy via central ฮฑ2A adrenoceptor.

    Brain Behav Immun, 2021. 216 citations.

  2. ฮฒ-Nicotinamide mononucleotide activates NAD+/SIRT1 pathway and attenuates inflammatory and oxidative responses in the hippocampus regions of septic mice.

    Redox Biol, 2023. 143 citations.

  3. HMGB1 mediates synaptic loss and cognitive impairment in an animal model of sepsis-associated encephalopathy.

    J Neuroinflammation, 2023. 119 citations.

  4. Fisetin ameliorates cognitive impairment by activating mitophagy and suppressing neuroinflammation in rats with sepsis-associated encephalopathy.

    CNS Neurosci Ther, 2022. 113 citations.

  5. CXCR5 down-regulation alleviates cognitive dysfunction in a mouse model of sepsis-associated encephalopathy: potential role of microglial autophagy and the p38MAPK/NF-ฮบB/STAT3 signaling pathway.

    J Neuroinflammation, 2021. 100 citations.

How we counted

A paper counts here when it is animal research and its title or abstract mentions sepsis and at least one of the 90 behavioral tests. A count is a number of papers, not of experiments, labs or animals. A paper that mentions sepsis only in its methods is missed, so the count runs low.

A paper is animal research when its MeSH terms name an animal species. If they name none, NCBI's text-mining service PubTator 3 has to find one in the title or abstract. Papers on animals other than mice, rats, zebrafish, flies and primates count only when they also mention a test. Many of them study people or use the same words for something else.

The search terms for sepsis are in the download Animal models and brain techniques. The counts in the chart of tests are in Tests mentioned with each model or technique. The full method, with each source and its terms of use, is on our main page, Behavioral tests in published research.

More animal models

Each animal model with 100 or more papers from 2021 to 2025 that mention a test has a page. These are the others, each with that count.

How to cite

APA

ConductScience. (2026, November 13). Behavioral tests with sepsis [Data set]. https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/sepsis

BibTeX

@misc{conductscience_sepsis_2026,
  author = {{ConductScience}},
  title = {Behavioral tests with sepsis},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  url = {https://conductscience.com/resources/data/animal-models/sepsis},
  note = {Data set, released November 13, 2026},
}

Equipment in our store

For studies with sepsis, our store sells:

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