Tag: Mice

Ohio State University Set to Expand Animal Research Facilities

Ohio State University, which came under fire recently over HIV research involving felines, recently announced that it plans a major expansion of its animal testing facilities.

The Columbus Dispatch reported that OSU will undertake a $30 million expansion of its animal testing facilities at Weiseman Hall that will add 35,000 square feet of lab space. The money will be raised through a combination of money from the Ohio legislature and bonds issued by OSU.

OSU’s William Yonushonis told the Dispatch,

It will be a rodent facility, primarily for mice. We’re looking at housing up to 35,000 cages. You can put up to five mice a cage.

This would add to the approximately 75,000 animals that the Dispatch reports are already used annually for research at OSU. Ninety-two percent of such animals are mice and rats.

Ohio-based animal rights group Protect Our Earth’s Treasures criticized the expansion. POET director Rob Russell told the Columbus Dispatch,

There’s a whole bunch of projects that we feel could be stopped today, and we feel it wouldn’t have any negative impact on humans.

OSU is also planning to build a new biosafety level 3 laboratory to study infectious diseases which will house laboratory animals.

Source:

New labs for mice planned at OSU. Alice Thomas, The Columbus Dispatch, July 5, 2003.

Background On Proposed BSL3 Laboratory Planned for Ohio State University’s West Campus. Press Release, Ohio State University, July 26, 2003.

Mouse and Rat Research Leads to Compound that Might Treat Human Diabetes

Scientists at pharmaceutical company Hoffman-La Roche recently published the results of their research into a compound that boosts production of insulin while simultaneously reducing the release of glucose.

The compound, referred to as RO-28-1675, binds to the glucokinase enzyme. In rats, it boosted glucokinase activity thereby resulting in an increase in insulin production. The compound also increased glucose usage by the liver in both mice and rats, causing glucose levels in the animals to fall.

Hoffman-LaRoche researcher Joseph Grimsby was quoted by Scientific American as saying,

By turning on glucokinase, this novel compound improves insulin secretion by the pancreas and stimulates glucose usage by the liver, both of which are abnormal in diabetes.

If this RO-28-1675 has the same abilities in human beings, an oral version of it could someday replace insulin shots. Human clinical trials of the drug are, however, likely years away.

Source:

Drug shows promise as diabetes pill. Scientific American, July 21, 2003.

Italian Researchers Publish Research on Stem Cell Treatment for Muscle Tissue

Italian researchers recently reported the results of their research with stem cells in mice that one day might offer a way to treat victims of muscular dystrophy.

Muscular dystrophy is a broad category of a number of genetic diseases that cause the muscles to gradually deteriorate. In many cases, muscular dystrophy leads to extremely shortened life expectancies — those born with the most common form of the disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, only survive on average into their early 20s.

Italian researchers performed tests in mice of stem cells called mesangioblasts. Mesangioblasts were only recently discovered in fetal blood vessels.

When the researchers injected mesangioblasts into the mice, the stem cells were able to pass from blood vessels into surrounding muscle tissue. In addition, once they were in the muscle tissue, they helped regenerate damage to the muscle tissue.

This research raises the possibility that someday a genetically engineered stem cell might be able to be introduced into the blood stream of muscular dystrophy victims and not only repair existing damage, but also correct the genetic defect that causes the disease in the first place.

Lead researcher Dr. Giulio Cossu is quick to point out, however, that the prospect of such a cure is a long way off,

Although these results are exciting, we have not cured the mice. We believe this is a significant therapy, but the question that keeps me awake at night is whether this will work in larger animals. I’m convinced this is an important result, but this is still not the therapy — for the mice or for patients.

Sources:

Stem cell treatment for muscular dystrophy. The BBC, July 11, 2003.

Muscular Dystrophy might be treatable; stem-cell research yields hopeful signs. Robert Cooke, New York Newsday, July 15, 2003.

New Group With a Hilariously Ambitious Press Release

Back in May, David Cantor announced the formation of a new animal rights group, Responsible Policies for Animals. The group’s goal is to get universities to drop their animal agriculture programs. But it was the title of the group’s first press release/fact sheet that really catches the eye,

10,000 Years Is Enough

The factsheet claims that “animal agriculture today bears no resemblance to the original” form of animal agriculture 10,000 years ago, which is belied a few paragraphs later,

Universities must not serve industries that torment and destroy animals, breed animals in order to kill them, and perpetuate the animals-as-property ethical disaster.

So 10,000 years ago animal agriculture did not mean breeding animals to kill them and treating animals as property? Apparently Cantor has a very idiosyncratic idea of what animal agriculture means.

The group argues that universities should abandon teaching animal agriculture because,

Teaching animal agriculture diminishes our universities’ credibility and intellectual integrity.

Somehow I doubt most universities are going to be concerned about having their intellectual integrity questioned by animal rights activists who apparently believe that animal agriculture originally did not involve breeding animals to kill them for food (many animals did have multiple uses, of course, including cattle for milk and labor and sheep for their wool).

Oddly enough, though, the group concedes the much-debated issue of animals being killed as a byproduct of crop growing, although it is spinned here as an argument against animal agriculture,

Far more mice, voles, and other small animals are killed in crop harvesting and protection than if crops were not grown to make animal products. Such carnage is based on destructive, archaic attitudes rejected by intellectual and spiritual leaders and much of the general public — all who have “done their homework.” Universities should reject them as well.

Much of the general public opposes the killing of mice and voles in the act of crop harvesting? Twenty bucks to the first person who can show me a scientific poll by a major polling organization showing even 25 percent of Americans oppose crop harvesting because it is cruel.

On the other hand, does this mean Cantor is willing to take vegans and vegetarians to task for all the poor voles who die to provide their cruel diets?

Source:

10,000 Years Is Enough: Time to Stop Teaching Animal Agriculture. Responsible Policies for Animals, Press Release, May 2003.

Bacteriophage Vaccines

The BBC recently ran an article on the state of research into using bacteriophages to vaccinate against diseases.

A bacteriophage is a virus that attacks bacteria but which is generally harmless to human beings. The Soviet Union researched using bacteriophages to attack bacterial disease, but researchers are currently focused on using bacteriophages as vaccine delivery vehicles.

Such research relies on the fact that in some cases injecting a DNA strand of a virus into an animal creates an immune response to the protein that the DNA expresses. If a genetically engineered bacteriophage could be developed that would contain DNA of common viruses that would then elicit an immune response when injected into human beings, this would drastically reduce the cost of producing vaccines because the bacteriophages could be cheaply grown in culture.

The major obstacle is that so far this phenomena has only been reproduced in mice and other small animals. Even there, however, bacteriophage vaccines could positively impact human health. For example, researchers at the University of Florida are investigating using bacteriophages to prevent and treat Vibrio vulnificus which is the leading cause of death associated with eating seafood. Researchers are looking at using bacteriophages to purify oysters of V. vulnificus before they reach the tables of consumers.

As the research in animals continues, scientists learn more about bacteriophages and their possible role in vaccination that could someday lead to breakthroughs in understanding how they could be applied to vaccinating human beings.

Source:

Hope for cheaper, better vaccines. Richard Black, The BBC, June 5, 2003.

Researchers: Stem Cells Can Turn Into Any Type of Brain Cell

In April researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School proved that stem cells could turn into any form of brain cell in research involving mice.

According to a University of Minnesota press release on the accomplishment,

Adult stem cells were injected into a mouse blastocyst, an early embryonic stage of a mouse. The result is the birth of a chimerical animal an animal that shows the presence of both the cells from the host mouse as well as cells that have developed from the transplanted stem cells. Within the brain, the transplanted stem cells developed into nerve cells that typically conduct electrical impulses, glial cells that provide support to the nerve cells, and myelin-forming cells that enhance the conduction of electrical impulses by nerve cells.

Co-investigator Catherine Verfaille said in a prepared statement that,

This tells us that these adult stem cells are capable of becoming nerve cells that communicate with other nerve cells within the brain and form proper neural circuits that permit the chimerical mice to function normally.

In fact, according to the BBC, the adult stem cells resulted in the growth of cells in parts of the brains of the mice that correspond to those effected by Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other similar disorders.

Source:

Stem cells ‘turn into brain cells’. The BBC, April 25, 2003.

Adult stem cells shown to develop into all brain cell types. Press Release, University of Minnesota, April 25, 2003.