Experiments on mice: some (ethical) questions - (Jan/12/2006 )

hi,

we will use mouse as a model for treatment of lymphoma
we need to give some informations to our ethical office, can you please help us?


1 - what would be precise clinical signs of the evolution of the disease?

2 - when to stop the experiment? What are the clinical signs indicating that the mice suffer to much?

3 - is it possible to use any anti-inflammatory (non steroidial) or antalgic (morphinic) in such an experiment? Would these molecules affect the experiment? Can you please give us some references...


thank you so much

Sébastien_

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When the mice refused to eat and move around.

Like when we are ill, we do not want to eat and just want to stay in bed.

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does your institution have no veterinary staff to help guide you? they can help you with questions 2 and 3

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Hi,

for question 3, vets always give some molecules for a mouse feel better, they don't wonder if these will interfere with the experiment, so i need some experimental evidence...


thanks

Sébastien_

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I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but for Q. 3, you would need to research whether or not your chemical treatments have any sort of drug interaction with the analgesics.

For Q2, research signs of stress that mice may exhibit. Like Minnie Mouse said, if they refuse to eat or move. Also: excessive grooming, licking, LACK of grooming (their hair gets greasy and sticks out), shivering, etc.

Good luck--

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Hi Seb,
As suggested by someone you will have to check your Institutional Review Board criterias for human studies. If you do not find any then the best thing to do is to check if other papers on lymphoma and theri IRB criterias. If you are planning to public in an international journal the best bet is to follow IRB protocols for the US or UK.

q 1) check what other papers use for clinical symptoms.

q 2) Apart from very subjective signs like not eating etc...you might also look for as you say clinical signs. We work with breast cancer models adn we use the tumor size as an indicator of the end point. If the tumor say is more than 0.5 inch or something like that we sacrifice the animal.

q 3) check the interaction with your drug of choice.
good luck.
p..

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I found it helpful to go to the IACUC office and ask for a copy of someone else's animal protocol. Also some of these protocols can be found online from different universities with a bit of searching. There are usually general statements regarding when the mice should be euthanized.

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