In the news
6 Sep 2008
14 March 2007
Cardiff University researcher aims to find humane replacement to end painful 'crushing and burning' animal experiments
Cardiff University researcher, Dr Phil Stephens, has joined forces with the UK’s leading non-animal medical research charity – the Dr Hadwen Trust – to replace wound experiments in animals which can cause substantial pain and suffering.
Wounds that fail to heal, such as pressure sores and ulcers, cause significant disability and distress. They are particularly prevalent amongst the elderly, affecting 30% of over 60 year olds and costing the NHS over £1 billion annually. Effective new treatments are urgently needed but the current animal ‘models’ used in research not only inflict animal suffering, they are also unreliable as they cannot fully reproduce the same characteristics seen in the wounds of elderly people. So, for ethical and scientific reasons, it is vital that a more reliable non-animal research method is found.
Animal experiments to study chronic wounds can cause substantial pain and suffering. Wounds are inflicted by crushing, burning or applying chemicals to the backs of animals such as guinea pigs, rabbits, rats, mice and pigs. Often the wounds are deliberately infected with bacteria to stop them healing.
Dr Phil Stephens is determined to find more advanced ways of making medical progress that stop the animal suffering. His research at the Cardiff Institute of Tissue Engineering & Repair is being funded by non-animal medical research charity, the Dr Hadwen Trust. Dr Stephens is working to develop a cell-based model of wound healing using tissues donated by human patients. This vital research is using the very latest genetic techniques to investigate key differences at the cellular and molecular level between human cells taken from healthy tissues and leg ulcers.
Says Dr Stephens:
“The funding from the Dr Hadwen Trust is key to the development of a laboratory-based model which will eventually replace unnecessary animal experimentation. Taking cells from human chronic leg wounds and normal skin, we have altered them so that they can grow forever in laboratory dishes. From these cells we have identified which genes are turned on or off in the disease state and have labelled them with fluorescent molecules which cause the cells to light up when a marker gene is activated. By doing this, potential new therapies can easily be tested on the cells. The advantages of this new model are that it will be highly reproducible, efficient, easy to use and inexpensive. We hope that the development of this laboratory model will be an important and unique resource for wound healing researchers worldwide.”
Says Wendy Higgins, Dr Hadwen Trust:
“We believe that excellence in medical research can and should be pursued without animal experiments. Wound experiments in animals inflict substantial suffering and are unacceptable in today’s modern research laboratories. It is shocking that animals in laboratories can still be crushed and burned in research like this. That is why Dr Stephens’ project to find a better and more ethical non-animal approach is so important, and why the Dr Hadwen Trust is committed to funding the work in order to help people and stop animal suffering. Work like this demonstrates how important it is that the scientific community focuses on replacing animal experiments, not just because it’s more ethical but also because it can produce better quality research that benefits everyone.”
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