Development of Improved Animal Models for the Study of Diabetes

Medical research based on animal model is rightly considered a “necessary evil”, being a “modus vivendi” in all research activities for more than 2,000 years. It is admitted that the major breakthroughs in medicine such as blood circulation, respiration physiology, the hormonal system used for research purpose different species of animals. In the last 150 years animals used in medical experiments brought huge benefits to humanity by providing crucial responses to the most intriguing questions about prevention and treatment of some devastating diseases. Furthermore, diseases as cancer, AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes mellitus were approached by creating specific animal models with respect to pathogenesis, genetic insights and treatment. Despite to all these achievements, over the years a lot of people or organizations were and still are reluctant to animal research because this brings intolerable suffer and pain. All of those mentioned emphasized that animal models are not the only scientific methods to achieve important and reliable results. Consecutively, it was constantly sustained that animal research should be abandoned at once and further efforts should be invested in creating alternative methods. For preventing barbarity against animals which was rightly condemned in the past, new concepts were necessary to be enforced. Thus, “animal rights” (animals are granted to live a life free from abuse and exploitation which also includes prevention of use an animal for scientific research) and “animal welfare” (for the animals used in research this implies assessment of breeding, transport, housing, nutrition, disease prevention and treatment, handling and, where necessary, euthanasia) were two of the most invoked [1].