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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Developmental Toxicity Testing: Protecting Future Generations?, Jarrod Bailey
Developmental Toxicity Testing: Protecting Future Generations?, Jarrod Bailey
Experimentation Collection
A recent editorial is discussed, which implied that animal-based developmental and reproductive toxicology tests will continue to be crucial, that the thalidomide disaster could have been prevented by more animal testing, and that tests on juvenile animals would help to protect children (as developing adults) from the adverse effects of pharmaceuticals. It is argued that animal tests in these scientific areas do not provide reliable data that are predictive for human responses and, even if they did, the tests are too expensive and time-consuming for application to the very large number of substances that need to be tested. It is …
Non-Animal Methodologies Within Biomedical Research And Toxicity Testing, Andrew Knight
Non-Animal Methodologies Within Biomedical Research And Toxicity Testing, Andrew Knight
Experimentation Collection
Laboratory animal models are limited by scientific constraints on human applicability, and increasing regulatory restrictions, driven by social concerns. Reliance on laboratory animals also incurs marked – and in some cases, prohibitive – logistical challenges, within high-throughput chemical testing programmes, such as those currently underway within Europe and the US. However, a range of non-animal methodologies is available within biomedical research and toxicity testing. These include: mechanisms to enhance the sharing and assessment of existing data prior to conducting further studies, and physicochemical evaluation and computerised modelling, including the use of structure-activity relationships and expert systems. Minimally-sentient animals from lower …