Suppose that you have lab mice that you used for human breast cancer research (e.g. growing human breast cancer cells in the mice abdomen). Once you remove the tumor from the mice, can you use those animals for another experiment or what are the limitations? (Mice are alive and otherwise healthy after the tumor removal) Does anyone know any related info or any reference I can check on? Thank you all in advance.
Hello Melis
You can use lab mice for another experiment provided the previous experiment has not cause any effect on the animal namely, the physiology or anatomy of the mice which could affect the upcoming experiment that you may be planning. The welfare of the animal has to be taken into consideration as well.
For your reference you can read literature on animal ethics.
Thank you.
Hai,
Generally, the answer to your queries no! You should not use the treated mice to another assay which may affect the impact of the studies, also you should consider the experimental animals should not escape from the lab environment and should not use in another experiment. especially for drug discovery and neuro disorders.
Totally agree with Malcolm Nobre and Arun K. Malaisamy. Once a tumor has been established, the mice undergoes vast physiological and anatomical alterations and thus, best to be avoided for any further experiments. Was there a reporter gene in the tumor cells that can be analyzed by animal-whole body-bioluminescence? A well-developed tumor periodically shreds cells for localized or distant metastases, which can be detected by bioluminescence. There can also be circulating tumor cells which can establish secondary metastases later. To make things even more complicated, some tumors are prone to shred circulating DNA in the peripheral system as well.