Kingston study proposes invertebrate solution to decline of in vivo lab skills

An investigation led by Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Physiology at Kingston University Dr Nick Freestone concluded that “non-traditional lower order species” offered a route to address a perceived training deficiency caused by the decline of in vivo laboratory testing.

Government statistics reveal a marked fall in animal testing in the UK from more than 5,700 animals in 2001 to fewer that 860 in 2022, due said the researchers to ethical, financial and practical barriers.

Writing in the American Physiological Society’s Advances in Physiology Education journal, Freestone and academics from Leeds, Sheffield and Swansea universities examined three invertebrate species as possible alternatives for specific areas of study.

These included the zebrafish, the fruit fly and blackworm – none of which requires a government licence for lab use.

The transparent zebrafish enabled students to study a beating heart and he effects of drugs or temperature on heart rate without dissection or distress; fruit fly permitted observation of the impact of gene mutation on locomotor and learning deficits; and blackworms could be utilised for behavioural pharmacology

With the exception of intelligent cephalopods such as octopuses and related species, invertebrates exempt from the protections afforded by the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.

Commented Freestone: “Using these teaching strategies can help produce highly employable and qualified graduates who possess the hands-on research skills necessary to continue contributing to the development of new medicines and therapeutics, while helping close the growing skills gap we have seen in the life sciences over recent times.”

Pic: Chokniti Khongchum