Exploring Bioethics - NIH Office of Science Education - National ...

Contrasting Cases of Animal ModificationsDisease-Model MiceHow similar are you to a mouse? It turns outthat an astonishing 99 percent of mouse geneshave equivalent or homologous genes in humans.This genetic kinship means that mice canserve as very useful models in studying manyhuman diseases. Mice have been used as modelsfor research on cancer, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease,and a whole host of other disorders. Medicalresearchers choose animal models when theybelieve it would be unsafe, unethical, or prematureto conduct the research using humans. ToMice genetically engineered to have Parkinson’s disease.ensure that animals used in research are treatedhumanely, research funded by the National Institutes of Health must adhere to the Guide to the Careand Use of Laboratory Animals. This manual covers in great detail how to house, feed, care for, anduse research animals.Photo: Courtesy ©iStockphoto.com/filoCopyright © 2009 Education Development Center, Inc. Exploring Bioethics.Permission granted for classroom use.Researchers create transgenic mice by transferring foreign DNA into mouse cells to produce specifictraits. Mice that have successfully incorporated the gene and developed the disease of interest canthen be used to study the course of the disease and to look for potential treatments. For example, ifthere were a gene known to cause lethal brain tumors in humans, it could be transferred into miceto make them grow brain tumors. The way the tumor grows and ways to treat it could be studiedwith the hope that the findings could eventually be applied to humans.Hundreds of thousands of transgenic mice are being used in research. Besides the risks of geneticengineering, discussed in other cases here (for example, mad-cow-disease cows, spider-silk goats,and immunoglobulin cows), these mice will suffer symptoms of the disease under investigation. Themice are killed at the end of the research, or earlier if they appear to be suffering too much.There are as yet no equivalent alternatives for doing this type of research. Animals with simplernervous systems, such as fruit flies and nematode worms, are often used as models. Their genes donot have the same high degree of similarity to humans’ as mouse genes do, so they may not be aseffective as model systems for studying disease.Is it ethically acceptable to use mice as human-disease models? Why or why not?Master 6.2 (Page 1 of 12)