Reproductive toxicology costs

Search for and validate animal models to analyse toxicological aspects of reproductive biology to develop appropriate systems that are reproducible, low cost and easier to extrapolate to human disease. 

Laboratory rodents are the animal models most commonly used to identify hazards in reproductive toxicity. Rodents are used because they are small animals, the assay cost is moderate and there is a large database of toxicology information on these species (e.g., dose-response, metabolism, kinetics, etc.). The rat has proven to be a good model for human reproductive hazard evaluation (Francis et al., 1990). 

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