Experiments on Monkeys & Cats at UCSF are not only cruel, but scientifically unnecessary

[Guest guest]

Dear Advocates for Animals:

 

As you may know, UCSF (University of California, San Francisco) uses monkeys, cats and other animals in painful invasive brain-imaging experiments. I have personally reviewed numerous protocols that call for the use of monkeys and cats in these cruel experiments at UCSF. Some good news on the topic of brain-imaging research is that there is less scientific basis for such experiments on animals because of the great progress that has been made in recent years in the field of brain imaging. In that regard, I just want to share with you some recent correspondence from Dr. Gill Langley, of Dr. Hadwen Trust (based in England) regarding current brain-imaging technologies available. Some of which can be used non-invasively on human volunteers and thus replace monkeys, cats and other animals (ab)used in brain-imaging experiments at UCSF and other research

institutes across the country. (For your information, please see correspondence below.)

 

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Dear Bob O'Brien,Thank you for your message. Greetings from England.It's an exciting time in the world of brain imaging, with masses of potential to replace invasive electrode-type experiments (and others) on animals such as primates and cats.Below my signature is some text about diffusion tensor imaging (also known as MRI diffusion imaging). If you visit the Dr Hadwen Trust website www.drhadwentrust.f2s.com/ you can find more brain imaging information. Click on the 'News & Events' button on the left, scroll down to 'New enquiry into the use of primates in research' and to the Trust's submission. There's a whole section on brain imaging.Regards,Gill LangleyScientific Adviser-----------------Going with the flowThe flow of water molecules in body

tissues is the basis of a novel imaging technique causing some excitement in the research world.DTI (diffusion tensor imaging) is an advanced imaging technology that measures the three-dimensional movement of water molecules, either within the living body or in tissues in the test tube.Why should we care how water molecules move about in different parts of our body? With DTI, the information is turned into detailed images showing the routes of fibrous tissue; for example, the Œcables¹ (tracts) that link active centres in the brain. These are more usually studied invasively in animals, especially monkeys, in experiments that inflict brain damage or involve brain electrodes. Until recently, more was known about brain connections in monkeys than in humans. Animal suffering aside, species differences in brain organisation mean that results from experiments on monkeys cannot be interpreted with confidence. For example, before DTI, detailed

information about circuits between brain areas controlling movement was available only from experiments on animals. Now, these connections have been mapped directly in human volunteers.Because DTI is a safe technology that can be used ethically with volunteers, it has real potential to replace certain animal experiments. Already there are plans to apply it to investigate relationships between brain structure, function, genes and behaviour, in health and disease.This exciting imaging technique is already being applied to human volunteer studies of ageing and cognition, neuropsychiatric disorders (e.g.schizophrenia), HIV infection, multiple sclerosis and strokes, all of them areas of research that traditionally use animals.Mark Bastin from Edinburgh University is working with American and British colleagues to develop the best ways of representing the information obtained by this novel technique. A recent approach involves colour-coded images that map and

measure the health of the brain¹s fibrous tracts.The results of DTI are also being used to improve computer simulations of human physiology. The ambitious aim of research at Johns Hopkins University in the USA is to develop integrated computer models of the human heart and circulation, using information from human heart-cell biopsies as well as diffusion tensor images of the human heart. Better computer models will, inturn, also help replace animal experiments.With technical developments moving fast, researchers are realising how this safe, non-destructive imaging method could impact on their work and avoid animal experiments.References1. T Yamamoto et al (2004). Progress in Brain Res. 143:309-317.2. S Lehericy et al (2004). Cerebral Cortex 14:1302-1309.--------------------------------