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Replacement Alternatives
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Tissue engineered blood vessel generated from human cells. The vessel contains all three layers found in normal human blood vessels: the adventitia, the media and the endothelium.
Courtesy of the FASEB Journal ® (L'Heureux N. et al. FASEB Journal 12(1): 47-56, 1998).
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C. elegans, photo by Conny Lin, Brain Research Centre, UBC
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Tissue engineered epidermis generated from human epidermal cells grown in culture.
Courtesy of the LOEX®."
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Replacement alternatives refers to methods which avoid or replace the use of animals in an area where
animals would otherwise have been used. This includes both absolute replacements (i.e. replacing
animals with inanimate systems, such as computer programs) and relative replacements (i.e. replacing
more sentient animals such as vertebrates, with animals that current scientific evidence indicates
have a significantly lower potential for pain perception, such as some invertebrates).
General Examples of Replacement Alternatives
Replacement alternatives include:
- the collation and use of information already gained (for example by literature searches and meta-analysis);
- the use of physical and chemical analysis techniques;
- the use of mathematical and computer models (including molecular modelling, structure-activity
relationship [SAR] approaches, and physiologically based pharmacokinetic [PBPK] modelling);
- the use of in vitro systems (including sub-cellular fractions, short-term maintenance cultures,
and cells and tissues maintained in culture for longer periods); and
- the use of human-oriented post-marketing surveillance and epidemiological approaches, and the
ethical use of human volunteers.
Using species with lower neuro-physiological development may be considered a relative replacement.
(This section has been adapted from the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments [FRAME]).
Challenges to implementation of Replacement alternatives
Currently, implementation of replacement is limited by the complexity of whole organisms; therefore,
in many cases absolute replacement is currently not possible or desirable. Some examples include:
- studies of animal behaviour;
- studies of wildlife populations;
- studies of applied animal agriculture; and
- studies of whole physiological systems.
When animals must be humanely killed to provide material (i.e. organs, cells, etc.) for in vitro
experiments, it is usually possible to obtain enough material to conduct a greater number of
experiments from each animal than if whole animals were used for the study.
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For more information on replacement alternatives, the following resources may be useful:
CCAC resources
Online resources
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