Animal testing ethical aspects

Another behavioral approach used to assess aspects of anxiety in animals relies on conflict paradigms in combination with punishment, mostly induced by electric foot shock. Due to ethical and also ethological considerations, paradigms based on electric shock are less often used than tests for unconditioned anxiety. However, it has been hypothesized that behavioral expressions displayed in tests for unconditioned and conditioned anxiety may reflect profoundly different aspects of anxiety (File 1995 Griebel 1996 Millan and Brocco 2003). Thus, shock paradigms are quite frequently included in behav-... 

The eyes of the rabbit differ in certain aspects from the eyes of humans. They are more sensitive, have a lower tear production and blink frequency and posses a nictitating membrane. Nevertheless, the Draize test predicts human ocular toxicity correctly in 85 % cases but overestimates in 10% and underestimates in 5 % (Gad and Chengelis 1991). In addition, ethical concerns have been raised in the use of animals and benefit vs risk of these tests for the protection of the human eye must be carefully evaluated. 

In vitro assays to determine the action of human cytochromes and other DMEs have been developed in the last 10 years. In more recent times, their use in preclinical testing has increased rapidly in response to the pressures of prioritizing drug candidates and the ethical drive to reduce animal experimentation. As drug metabolism is better understood at the molecular level, it is proving possible to design assays to look at particular aspects of this complex process. There are still limitations which reflect the discrete nature of the tests with respect to each other, whereas the in vivo... 

In particular, stem cell engineering is still a highly contentious issue hotly debated among various segments of the population, by politicians as well as by ethically concerned self-appointed activists. Rapid and predictive in vitro test methods for bioceramics-cell responses could largely alleviate the use of costly and ethically compromised animal experiments. Both are challenging aspects of future bioceramics research and development. 

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