Mice tend to end up their life being prototypes of medical research. We should note that mice represent 50 percent of the laboratory animals used for experiment and thus the prime source of testing for modern medicine.
Recently, a group of research from University of Pittsburgh confirmed that they had found the secret behind a rodent’s fountain of youth.
In the University, there is a colony of progeria mice; mice which have been infected with a rare disease, inducing them to die from old age after 21 days. Yet, when the researcher group took these progeria mice, which were just about to die and injected them with stem cells taken from younger and healthier cousins the dying mice recovered and stayed alive for an addition 2 to 4 weeks.
Dr. Laura Niedernhofer, lead research said that the size and lifespan of these progeria mice could be triple through this method.
It is more than a century that researchers have been using mice for medical experiments. The mice used nowadays are tweaked and engineered, sharing blood, livers as well as brain tissues of other groups of species. The Pittsburgh progeria mice are, however, quite different from human and will probably not provide an immediate answer on how to increase human longevity.
Even so, engineered or so called re-made rodents are increasingly becoming alike to human; the disparity between man and mouse are slowly vanishing. Not only are the differences fading but researchers do nowadays even have a deeper knowledge of rodents than human and any other creature found on earth. For research, rodents are indispensable.
Some History: Mice & Laboratory Research
Ostensibly, the first vaccination against cancer was done on a mouse. In addition, mice do already have treatments for baldness as well as capsules to save them from Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, mouse is the only animal to have been involved in hoverboard-style levitation as well, they have had their brain simulated in a computer. They were even the first non-human mammal to have had their whole genome mapped.
Everything began in 1902, when a scientist named William Castle, brought pet mice to the Harvard Genetics Laboratory, and now rodents have been the back-bone of almost all the key drug treatments as well as medical procedures used in modern medical care. According to Dr. Janet Rossant, who is the senior scientist as well as chief research at Tornoto’s SickKids Research Institute, almost all the major drugs marketed today have been the result of mouse models in developing drugs.
Statistics are surprising; in 2010, a total of 1,132,706 mice had been killed in Canadian laboratories. In any year, mice make up to 50 percent of the animals used in laboratories, and the second most commonly used animal is rats.
There are strong similarities between humans and mice. They both have immune system, circulatory systems and skeletons. In addition, mice and human can suffer from similar health predicaments such as diabetes, cancer, heart diseases, and with some minor genetic modification, mice suffer even from Alzheimer’s disease and cystic fibrosis. In laboratory terms, using mice makes sense; they are cheap, have a lifespan of 12 weeks and are easy to maintain. In other words, in the term of a single semester, several studies can be completed.
According to Dr. Michele Martin, who is a veterinary director at the University of Victoria, apparently ‘almost any disease’ you can find you will come to know that there is ‘a mouse model’ that has been used to ‘describe it’.
In 1929, the Lab Mouse Pioneer C.C. Little, Jackson Laboratory was founded, which is today’s leading supplier of so called genetically modified mice. There are more than 5,000 different strains of mice in the laboratory. The cost for a classic ‘dilute brown’ mouse, which is the oldest in the catalogue is roughly $30 a piece. It was first developed in 1909.
In the beginning mice were changed in the same way as dog breeders had changed wolves into Chihuahuas; selective inbreeding. However, in the 1980s, genetic engineering was available and since then it has been much easier to tweak and create customized mice.
In 2002, the first non-human animal, the rodent had its whole genome mapped. The mice had 99% of its gene shared with humans. This gave rise to a whole new agenda of scientific research.
In modern research, mice are no longer kept in wire-bottom cages; they are placed in large collective cages. This makes the mice happier and for research, it is better to have normal animals involved in research for more accurate results.
From 2000 to 2009, the number of mice euthanized in Canadian Laboratory experiments amounted to 10 million, which are equivalent to 3,000 mice per day.
Universities in China, Korea and Japan have an annual memorial day every year to serve homage to all animals that have been killed in research as well as experiments. The ceremony is a way for research communities to show their indebtedness to laboratory animals; as today almost every pill bottle sold in pharmacy across the globe are the result of thousands of mice.
In 1929, penicillin was first discovered, but it was only in 1940 that Oxford University could understand how penicillin worked, and it was thanks to research conducted on mice. Similarly, meningitis as well as polio vaccines are mainly a result of the lab mice.
According to Dr. Rossant, mice are ‘very, very powerful systems’ to comprehend the distinct pathways of severe diseases. Yet, lab mice are not perfect. There is a dozen of cures available for cancer which works on mice but not yet on humans. In addition, Thalidomide is a drug that caused defects to almost 10,000 children, noting that it had no negative effects on mice.
The degenerative disease, ALS, which Stephen Hawking, the theoretical physicist suffers from have various rodent-based therapies – yet – the 70 years-scientist will probably not live long enough to see the therapy available for humans.
In the 100 years that mice have been used for research, the aim has always been to change the rodent into a so called tiny human being. Nowadays, rodents have human blood, humne immune system, human organs, and they even have the bad human traits such as violence, alcoholism, drug addiction as well as gluttony.
In December 2011, the U.S Based national Institute of Health, reduced funding for additional research on chimpanzees as a progressive step to prevent research on chimpanzee. Chimps have been considered to human to have laboratory experiments justified. Several countries around the world have mirrored the widespread discontent of chimpanzee research through the so called ‘save Gabon’
Yet, mice are increasingly becoming like human, as the engineered mice aren’t really as the traditional mice.
Source: national Post
Sun, Jan 15, 2012
Anti Aging, Bioscience, Stem cells