Animal Models and Better Understanding of “One Medicine”

Duncan Ferguson

doi:10.3390/vetsci1010003

Abstract

Medical science has long been informed by the study of animal physiology and pathophysiology, both spontaneous and induced. Physiologist Claude Bernard studied dogs to better understand pancreatic, hepatic and cardiovascular homeostasis [1,2]. Best and Banting uncovered the function of insulin through studies in experimental dogs [3]. More recent studies of obesity in cats have found similarities and interesting differences in the manifestation of the adverse effects of overnutrition between cats and humans [4]. The complete sequencing of the human and mouse genomes, and deep sequencing of pig, cattle, dog and cat have opened up the opportunity to systematically compare genetic similarities and differences [5,6]. [...]

Highlights

Medical science has long been informed by the study of animal physiology and pathophysiology, both spontaneous and induced
At which level does the apparent resistance of the naked mole rat lead to a diminishingly small incidence of spontaneous neoplasms [7]? Veterinary medical science has uncovered important spontaneous diseases which have important similarities to similar diseases in man: drug allergies and autoimmune diseases, feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), Cushings’ disease in the dog, feline thyrotoxic nodular goiter, feline diabetes, a variety of neoplasms including canine osteosarcoma and lymphosarcoma, to name just a few
X Are there better spontaneous animal models of mammary cancer that manifest the wide variety of tissue responses of human breast cancer?