They just don't make Rat Chow like they used to...
Posted on 08/02/2006 2:16:46 PM PDT by oxcart
For decades, in thousands of laboratories across the country, biomedical researchers have relied on laboratory rats and mice to devise treatments for cancer, heart disease, inflammation and a host of other human afflictions.
But what if, despite all the rigorous procedures to ensure valuable test results, many of those studies have been skewed by the most seemingly mundane of factors: what the animals are routinely fed?
The concern is that researchers have unwittingly administered hormones present in some rodent chow.
A small but growing number of scientists are warning that these hormones are a hidden element in millions of laboratory experiments – potentially affecting researchers' conclusions on countless aspects of disease.
"Many people don't give a second thought to it," said Leslie Leinwand, a molecular biologist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "You just buy this stuff in big bags and feed it to mice and rats, and very few people are aware what is in there."
The most commonly used laboratory rodent chows contain soy as a key source of protein. The problem, research has shown, is that soy naturally contains chemicals known as phytoestrogens. These substances can wriggle their way into the lab animals' natural estrogen system, altering their physiology, whether they are male or female.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
A you might find this interesting (((PING))).
DemocRats eat lots of soy products, right?
This is a load of crap. Research animal diets are well controlled in the US. Additionally, as long as the same diet is fed to both the control and experimental group, the test conditions are the same. Any study involving diet differences already takes into account the diet ingredients.
Does this mean I can eat theater popcorn again? /s
Link doesn't work.
Rats! My experiments have been foiled again!
They just don't make Rat Chow like they used to...
Could we get an incredibly loud "D'oh" with a five second echoing reverb?
Kind of reminds me of how recently a couple guys in Germany (I believe) discovered a as yet unknown gland in the lab mice brain after all these years of dissecting them. It was a thread posted here on FR. I'll bet that's mucked things up some, too.
What to do?
Sorry, link; http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/080206dnnatratchow.19c2ae9.html
Printer friendly; http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/bi/gold_print.cgi
My thoughts exactly. If the same diet is fed to control and test subjects, maybe they both react strangely, but there shouldn't be any measurable difference. Isn't that part of why the results are given as +- .01% (or whatever number they give)?
Not necessarily, as the hormones in the feed may affect the drug tests. For example, it may increase the adverse affect of a drug, showing a higher incidence rate. Conversely, it may mask the negative effects of a drug, showing a false negative in relation to the control group.
I just can't believe this never occurred to them before :)
Why would you doubt this? Do you think scientists are infallible or beyond the reach of an agenda? Do you think that every lab in every industry follows the same protocol?
Remember the feverish craze that went through the scientific community when stem cells were found to grow pancreatic tissue that actually produced insulin? Everyone thought stem cells were the answer to all disease.
Of course, it wasn't discovered (or disclosed) until after a major influx of funding that the culture used in the petri dish to grow these stem cells...was loaded with insulin!
Accidents and manipulation does happen in the scientific community. There are a few good books and articles out there now as they come under increasing scrutiny.
"The University of Colorado's Dr. Leinwand said she stumbled on the chow issue when an employee switched a particular breed of mice from a soy-based diet to a milk protein-based diet in preparation for an experiment.
Suddenly, she said, it seemed like there was nothing left to study. The male mice, which ordinarily developed heart disease, were much healthier on the milk protein-based chow. Further studies implicated the soy hormones as part of the reason."
Does that mean all these heart-healthy ads for soy milk have to be taken with a grain of salt?
Do a google search on He La Cells. The biopsy of a Baltimore cleaning woman were cultured and invaded and may have invalidated years of research. Henrietta Lacks (He La for short)had breast cancer back in the '50's and it caused her death. Her biopsy cells were cultured and were used in labs all over the world. They were inordinately vigorous and survived routine sterilization to infect samples for years.
FWIW :)
Better than a Diet of Worms.
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