Since the third century BC and peaking in the middle to late 20th century, mice and other animals have been key players in medical and cosmetics research that the United Kingdom conducted in 2015. Despite strict regulations that only allow testing when it is absolutely necessary, and the increased championing of proper care prior to experimentation, the ethics of such research are questioned.
And, in fact, this practice may soon reach its end, due to new innovative alternatives being developed, such as the so-called ‘Organ-on-a-Chip’ systems, which labs across the United-Kingdom (UK) have been experimenting, and investing in.
Animal models, especially mice, are useful in research due to their relative similarities to humans, both anatomically and genetically, allowing scientists to study and model a plethora of human diseases. However, there remains some obvious differences between our species, and the ones on which we test our products. These can impact scientific understanding or mislead therapeutic approaches, leading to scientists looking for an alternative way to research diseases.
The 21st century has seen a drastic fall in animal testing, partly due to the stricter regulations in place, but also because of the incredible advancement in the development of biomedical technologies.
For instance, ‘In Vitro’’ models (meaning outside the body or in the lab, like a test tube) aim to recreate human 3D organs or tissues, excluding the use of live animals completely. This involves adding specific factors to human stem cells that allow the cells to grow and differentiate into mini-organs called organoids. Examples of organoids currently used in research include livers, kidneys, lungs, skin and even brains.These human organoids have been proven an invaluable tool, particularly useful for modelling infectious or immune diseases that are shown to differ between mice and men.
However, an organoid is not entirely representative of a living organism, mainly because it lacks connections to other organs. The conditions are therefore highly different to the organs typical natural environment.Hence the importance of the new Organ-on-a-chip technique, combining engineering with biology and medicine, to develop a small ‘chip’ with channels that allow the flow of fluids under specific cells, mimicking the behaviour of cells inside a living organism.
Pairing two Organs-on-chips can create a system; a heart and a lung chip combination could enable the study of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases in a way that organoids might not have allowed scientists to.
To this day, the UK have invested seven million pounds in this technology, especially at the Queen Mary University of London, which now has become Europe’s biggest organ-on-a-chip facility.
This shows a clear step towards replacing animal testing with technologies that could be just as powerful at advancing medicine as the animal models, which have been the cornerstone of science for hundreds of years. Despite further development needed to perfect such systems, the sheer progress made in just this century indicates a promising start.
Photo by National Library of Medicine on Unsplash