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The use of inbred animals isn't a cost saving technique. Inbred strains are developed over many generations so that individuals are genetically homogeneous. You
by _Wintermute 11y ago
The use of inbred animals isn't a cost saving technique. Inbred strains are developed over many generations so that individuals are genetically homogeneous. You know that any different results you get are due to different treatments for instance rather than the genetic background of the animals you're using.
- nonbel 11y ago>"You know that any different results you get are due to different treatments for instance rather than the genetic background of the animals you're using." I don't think this is really true. Perhaps that makes it unlikely genetic differences are the cause of a relatively large apparent treatment effect, but not just any difference.
- danieltillett 11y agoYes it is. Using inbred mice allows you to use fewer mice as the variability due to the genetic background is reduced. The more variability in your system the more individuals you need to see a statistically valid difference due to treatment. The more you have to test the more the cost. None of this would matter if we were developing cures for diseases of C57BL/6 mice [1], but we are actually interested in developing cures for humans who are not inbred (well in most places). We need our animals models to match as closely as possible to humans and using inbred mice is not a good match. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C57BL/6 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C57BL/6