Использование кроликов в доклинических исследованиях

Abstract

Rabbits are one of the most commonly used laboratory animal species in biomedical research. A large number of models of various human diseases have been developed on rabbits. Rabbits are widely used to assess the safety of substances and pharmaceuticals. The development of genetically modified rabbits has expanded their use for modeling various pathological conditions. Advantages of the rabbit include its relatively small size and relative ease of housing. Practically any experimental manipulations can be carried out on rabbits (any methods of administering the tested compounds are available, conducting various instrumental studies, multiple collection of blood samples, etc. is possible). In studies of reproductive toxicity, an important advantage of the rabbit relative to larger animals is a short gestation period, good reproductive ability. Rabbits are sensitive to human teratogens and are the preferred non-rodent species for embryofetal development studies. Rabbits are used in immunology for the production of diagnostic antibodies. An important point is that the scientific literature provides a sufficient amount of historical and reference materials on the anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology of these animals. The disadvantages of rabbits include frequently developed disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. The functional activity of the rabbit’s digestive system is highly dependent on the diet. Changes in the diet should be done gradually. Rabbits need to be able to exercise daily. With the wrong manipulation technique, it is easy to cause injury to the rabbit. Since some diseases may spontaneously develop in laboratory rabbits, this may require either the use of therapy or the exclusion of the animal from the experiment. Therefore, in the case of planning long-term studies on rabbits, it is reasonable to include at least 8 males and 8 females in each group. If recovery groups are needed, the number of animals should be sufficient to evaluate possible long-term effects. When planning and conducting experiments, every effort should be made to implement the principles of 3Rs. Combination designs with pharmacological safety, immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and toxicokinetics studies as part of a toxicity study may help to reduce the number of rabbits in toxicological research. Studies should be designed taking into account the available scientific data on the test compound or on analogue compounds, on the basis of which scientific-based decision can be made to reduce the number of animals in the experiment without compromising the human safety.