A recent publication by Portuguese and Hungarian scientists has confirmed the value of animal studies in diabetes research.
The team, led by i3S, Porto, Portugal, together with the University of Debrecen, evaluated the success of a class of Type-2-diabetes drugs on rats, mice and humans and compared the outcomes for each species, commenting on the animal welfare in each study.
The study, published in Biology, showed no meaningful differences between the responses of any of the species to the drugs, demonstrating the predictive benefits of preclinical studies using these models.
“These results, while on animal models of just one disease treated with one drug class, suggest current criticism of animal models may not be entirely warranted,” lead author Nuno Franco concluded in the study.