Since the last nugget on how animal testing kills humans, I’ve had several inquiries
about what viable alternatives there are. By the way, now that Ooby’s back, you’ll
be hearing this in the background. *snoring sounds*. Now animal testing isn't just dangerous
for humans, completely ineffective at producing any scientifically viable results and totally
driven by greed, but it is not the only option. During a government meeting about funding
for research, former US National Institute for Health Director, Dr Elias Zerhoni admitted
that experimenting on animals to help humans has been a major failure. He told his colleagues
“We have moved away from studying human diseases in humans. We all drink the Kool-Aid
on that one. Me included. The problem is that animal testing hasn’t worked and it’s
time we stopped dancing around the problem. We need to refocus and adapt new methodologies
for use in humans to understand disease biology in humans.” Stated most simply, by Doctors
MacLennan and Amos “There is no doubt that the best test species for man is man.”
So what are the alternatives? I’ll be pulling a lot of my information from the John Hopkins
University Centre for the alternatives to animal testing. Now we don’t have time to
cover all of the alternatives but here are the basics. There are three main categories.
First there are sophisticated tests using human cells and tissues. This is known as
in-vitro methods, then there are advanced computer modelling techniques often referred
to in-silico methods, and third, there are studies with human volunteers. These and other
non-animal tests are not hindered by the species differences that make applying animal test
results to humans difficult or impossible. And, they usually take less time and money
to complete. Here are some examples of in vitro testing. Harvard University’s Wyss
Institute of biological inspired engineering has created organs on chips that contain human
cells grown in a state of the art system to mimic the structure and functions of human
organs and organ systems. The chips can be used instead of animals and have been shown
to replicate human physiology, diseases and drug responses much more accurately than crude
animal experiments do.
Artery on a chip has been used to study heart disease and Canadian scientists have developed
microfluidic chips to enable fragile blood vessels to be studied easily and cheaply.
The device will allow thousands of potential new drugs to routinely screened for their
effect on blood vessels. Harvard’s Wyss institute has produced a breathing lung on
a microchip on 2010. Wyss researchers were later awarded a grant to develop a spleen
on a chip to treat sepsis. Now they have produced a physiological realistic gut on a chip which
enables them to study much more complex interactions than previous cell cultures or animal models.
They are currently working on more than 10 different organs with the ultimate goal of
linking them all together with fluidic channels to produce a more representative model for
testing medicine.
Ceetox bought by Cyprotex, developed a method to assess the potential of a substance to cause
a skin allergy in humans that incorporates Mat Tek’s epidurum tissue model, a three
dimensional human cell derived skin model that replicates key traits of normal human
skin. Researchers of the European Union Reference Library for the Alternatives to Animal Testing
developed five different tests that use human blood cells to detect contaminants in drugs
that cause a potentially dangerous fever response when they enter the human body. The non-animal
methods replaced the cruel use of rabbits in these painful tests. Now some examples
of some In silico models. Researchers have developed a wide range of sophisticated computer
models that simulate human biology and the progression of developing diseases. Studies
show that these models can accurately predict the way that new drugs will react in the human
body, now some examples of research with human volunteers. A method called micro dosing can
provide vital information on the safety of an experimental drug. Volunteers are given
an extremely small one time dose and sophisticated imaging techniques are used to monitor how
the drug behaves in the body. Advanced brain imaging and recording techniques such as Functional
Magnetic Resonance Imaging with human volunteers can be used to replace archaic experiments
in which rats, cats and monkeys have their brains damaged . These modern techniques allow
the human to be safely studied down to the level of a single neuron, like in the case
of Intracranial Electroencephalography. Yet another alternative are human patient simulators.
These are strikingly lifelike computerized simulators who breath, bleed, convulse talk
and even die. They have been shown to teach students physiology and pharmacology better
than crude exercises that involve cutting up animals. The most high tech simulators
mimic injuries and sickness and give the appropriate biological response to medical interventions
and injections of medications and have been shown in numerous studies to impart life saving
skills better than courses that require students to dissect living pigs, goats or dogs . So,
as you can see there are plenty of viable alternatives to animals testing. The whole
thing is a pretty shitty idea regardless of the existence of alternatives, but given there
are alternatives that are cheaper, cruelty free and more effective there really is no
fucking reason to continue testing on animals. Please visit Bite Size Vegan and sign up for
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