Tag : mice

Are clinical trials using animal studies always valid for humans? Consider me a skeptic.

I frequently see advertisements and newsletters (even some written by physicians) that promote lab tests and treatments based entirely on studies done using rodents. These “experts” frequently draw conclusions from these studies that their lab test or product is a breakthrough of vital importance to humanity. While it may be true, all too often it’s not.

Let me give you a recent example of a study done in mice that could lead to the conclusion that every woman with breast cancer should be taking very robust doses of the adrenal hormone DHEA. This study should serve both as an encouragement and as a caution, an example of the care we must exercise when we use animal studies to draw conclusions about humans.

We still have quite a long while before we know enough about stem cells to safely use them in any therapeutic manner. They do show remarkable promise. I’ve also taken an interest because I have personal ethical qualms about the harvesting of embryonic stem cells for research purposes. While I can see the value, my Hippocratic Oath was quite specific on the subject of abortion…

Recently I read an article that instead of dealing with embryonic stem cells but rather induced pluripotent stem cells in mice. Click here to read the article. Induced pluripotent stem cells are basically skin cells or hair follicles that, through the magic of molecular biochemistry, have been returned to a non-differentiated stem cell state. For a while now there’s been some question as to whether induced pluripotent stem cells are actual undifferentiated stem