Final Experimental Models Flashcards
How is cell culture used as an experimental model?
- can either use immortal cells or harvest cells
- can test basic cellular responses
What is a flow chamber
It can expose cells to a dynamic flow of fluids
What is 3D tissue culture?
- using magnets you can get cells to grow into 3D models
- allows for differentiation of various cell subpopulations
What are the advantages of cell culture?
- simple ethics
- simplified system, less confounding variable
- lots of reagents
What are the disadvantages of cell culture?
- no adaptive immunity, simple innate immunity
- hard to study process beyond the cellular level
What are the advantages of using flies and worms?
- cheap
- no ethics needed
- rapid breeding
- easy genetic manipulation
What are the disadvantages of using flies and worms
- no adaptive immunity
- small, hard to do surgeries
- limited reagents
What is special about the zebrafish experimental model?
- have a complete immune system
- young are transparent
What are the advantages to using fish as an experimental model?
- cheap
- visualize process in a translucent model
- rapid breeding
- innate and adaptive immunity
What are the disadvantages to using fish as an experimental model?
- aquatic
- hard for behavioural studies
- non-classic immune system
- limited reagents
What is good about using rodents as an experimental model?
- immune system is close to humans
- they’re a good size, easy to do surgeries and house
- mice are genetically pliable
- can control the breeding
What don’t work when using rodents as an experimental model?
- rodents aren’t people
- have cured sepsis and cancer
- can infect with E.Coli they survive
What happens to rodents when they’re injected with experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE)?
- generates MS like symptoms in mice
- however the severity is bad then goes normal unlike humans who’s severity gets increasingly bad
How should someone choose a model?
-choose a model that most closely parallels humans for that single aspect of interest
Which experiments require ethics?
- all experiments involving higher animals (veterbrae) require approval from an ethics committee
- all journals/grants require confirmation of ethics before funding
What does animal ethics entail?
- requires human handling to minimize pain and discomfort
- must have three R’s; reduce, replace, refine
What are the ethical issues and goals for humans (prisoners)?
- freedom
- informed consent
- privacy
- incentive
What are observational studies?
-just watching and taking note of things that happen regardless of the study
What are interventional studies?
- testing a new treatment
- always requires informed consent
- happen in phase 2 and 3
Whats the best way to test if something works ethically on humans? Like a vaccine?
- vaccinate a large amount of people
- follow these people for a long time
- compare infection rates
- very expensive
