Open AccessAlternative methods of replacement of laboratory animals in biomedical research
Author(s) -
Nikolaos Kostomitsopoulos
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
journal of the hellenic veterinary medical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 2585-3724
pISSN - 1792-2720
DOI - 10.12681/jhvms.15712
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , computer science , biochemical engineering , quality (philosophy) , process (computing) , management science , medicine , engineering , philosophy , epistemology , operating system
Society's sensitivity on the use of laboratory animals, the need for the improvement of the scientific value of the results and the high costs urged the biomedical community to look for alternative methodologies which could replace or reduce the number of animals being used or refine the existing experimental techniques. Replacement alternatives can be classified, according to the applied methology, in in vitro and immunological techniques and in methods which use «lower» organisms or vertebrates at early developmental stages, mathematical or computer models, human studies or data banks. Using replacement alternatives may raise a lot of problems such as the quality of results. Validation of these methods is a complicated and time consuming process with high but fair hurdles which aim at human safety.