Scientists must test medical treatments for effectiveness, and new drugs for safety before using them on humans. Small animals especially bred for laboratory use, usually rats and mice, are used to identify any undesired side effects of new drugs, such as infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, liver damage and cancer-causing potential. Once new drugs are proven safe in animal studies, they may be used in clinical studies on human volunteers, who then have the assurance that they may fare better - and will not do worse - than if they were given standard treatment or no treatment at all.
New surgical techniques also must be carefully devised and tested in living, breathing, whole organ systems with pulmonary and circulatory systems much like those in humans. The physicians and physicians-in-training who perform today's delicate cardiac, ear, eye, pulmonary and brain surgeries must develop the necessary skills before patients' lives are entrusted to their care. Neither computer models, cell cultures, or artificial substances can yet simulate flesh, muscle, blood, bone and organs working together in the living system.
A variety of animals provide very useful models for the study of diseases afflicting both animals and humans. For example, the prairie dog has a biliary tract similar to that of a human, so it makes an excellent model for studying gallstone disease, and the polar bear's natural aging process, resembling that of a human, provides a valuable model for studying Alzheimer's disease.
Basic biomedical research forms the cornerstone of scientific understanding of how the body functions in health and disease. It is the foundation of an ever-increasing knowledge of the biological and chemical processes essential to understanding and treating human disease.
Cell and tissue studies are important adjuncts of biomedical research. More recently, computer models have become valuable additions to the array of research tools and techniques.
But living systems are complex. The nervous system, blood and brain chemistry, gland and organ secretions, and immunological responses are all interrelated. It is impossible to explore, explain, or predict the course of many diseases or the effects of many treatments without observing and testing the entire living system.
On average, 22 million animals are used in biomedical research annually. The number has declined dramatically in recent years - down about 50 percent since 1968. From 90 to 95 percent of research animals used in the U.S. are rats, mice, and other rodents bred especially for laboratory research. From 1 to 1.5 percent of research animals are dogs and cats, and only .05 percent are non-human primates such as monkeys or chimpanzees.
Discoveries and developments include:
DNA, viruses and retroviruses, the pump-oxygenator, electrocardiograph, electroencephalograph, anglogram, cardiac catheter, radiation therapy, kidney dialysis machine, iron lung, blood pressure meter, cardiac pacemaker, artificial limbs and joints, x-rays, monoclonal antibodies, surgical dressings, ultrasound, CT and PET scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Treatments for:
Gallstones, tooth and gum disease, anemia, hay fever, schizophrenia, Rh disease, PICU (phenylketonia), cataracts, corneal defects, ear infections, vitamin deficiency, bone fractures, herpes, depression, pneumonia, bronchitis, acne, allergies, peptic ulcers, premature birth, chlamydia, cancer, Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, cystic fibrosis, hypertension, epilepsy, muscular distrophy, emphysema, hemophilia, leukemia, coronary artery disease, infertility.
Protective vaccines against:
Anthrax, cholera, diptheria, hepatitis, influenze B, rabies, measles, mumps, polio, rubella, smallpox, tetanus, typhoid, whooping cough, yellow fever.
Drugs:
Insulin, anticonvulsives, antibiotics, anti-inflammatory drugs, birth control pills, sulfa drugs, tranquilizers, anesthetics, pain killers, antihistamines, antimalaria drugs, interferon, cortisone, fertility drugs, anticoagulants, chemotherapy.
Surgical Procedures:
Blood transfusions, coronary bypass, heart valves replacements, abdominal and reconstructive surgery, skin grafts (burn therapy), neurosurgery, microsurgery, mastectomy, organ and bone marrow transplants.
Other benefits:
Stroke rehabilitation, intravenous feeding and medication, artificial limbs, indentification of occupational and environmental hazards, improved nutrition, insights into effects of smoking, alcohol, drugs, and other lifestyle choices on health.
Protective vaccines against:
Distemper, rabies, parvovirus, infectious hepatitis, anthrax, tetanus, feline leukemia. These vaccines protect not only domestic animals, but in many cases are used to the benefit of wild animals, including endangered species.
Treatments for:
Parasites, tuberculosis and brucellosis in cattle, heartworm infections and arthritis in dogs, leukemia, and other cancers.
Surgery:
Hip dysplasia in dogs, orthopedic surgery and rehabilitation for horses.
Biomedical research using animals has added an estimated 25 years to human life expectancy since the year 1900. The daily lives of untold numbers of people depend on medical treatments, drugs, and surgical procedures made possible through research involving laboratory animals.
Without this research:
Polio would still be killing or crippling thousands of unvaccinated children and adults each year.
About one million people in the U.S. with insulin-dependant diabetes would suffer painful complications and early deaths.
Some 1.5 million Americans would contract rubella - more than 400 times the current annual incidence.
Untold thousands of heart and stroke patients would never experience the benefits of bypass surgery.
60 million Americans would risk death from heart attack, stroke, or kidney failure from lack of medicine to control their high blood pressure.
The more than 100,000 people with arthritis who recieve hip replacements, each year would walk only with great pain and difficulty or be required to use wheelchairs.
More than one million Americans would lose vision in at least one eye without cataract removal surgery.
Physicians would have no chemotherapy to save 70 percent of children who now survive acute lymphocytic leukemia.
There would be no kidney dialysis to extend the lives of thousands of victims of end-stage renal disease.
Hundreds of thousands of people disabled by stroke or head and spinal cord injury would not benefit from modern rehabilitation techniques.
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