Green Sherril L
Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
Comp Med. 2003 Jun;53(3):244-7.
Heightened awareness for the welfare of earlier-evolved laboratory species has prompted increasing inquiries by institutional animal care committees, investigators, and laboratory animal veterinarians regarding the need for post-surgical analgesics in laboratory Xenopus. Basic research into the mechanisms and regulation of pain in Rana pipiens has demonstrated the clinical potential of opioid, alpha2-adrenergic, and non-opioid analgesic agents in amphibians. However, clinical studies using objectively established indices of amphibian pain, or pharmacological studies in either Rana pipiens or laboratory Xenopus have not been conducted. As discussed above, comparison of limited lethality data suggests that the safety index for these agents is quite narrow in Rana pipiens. Analgesic use in laboratory Xenopus has the added risk of drowning due to over sedation. Drug doses extrapolated from such studies and intended to provide pain relief in Xenopus should therefore be considered very carefully. An additional concern for laboratory Xenopus is that the effects of these agents on amphibian oogenesis, oocyte quality, and embryogenesis are unknown. As the numbers of laboratory Xenopus used in basic and biomedical research continues to increase, clinical studies that address all of these issues cannot come too soon.
对早期进化的实验动物福利的关注度提高，促使机构动物护理委员会、研究人员和实验动物兽医越来越多地询问在实验用非洲爪蟾中使用术后镇痛药的必要性。对牛蛙疼痛机制和调节的基础研究表明，阿片类、α2-肾上腺素能和非阿片类镇痛药在两栖动物中具有临床应用潜力。然而，尚未开展使用客观确立的两栖动物疼痛指标的临床研究，也未在牛蛙或实验用非洲爪蟾中进行药理学研究。如上所述，对有限致死率数据的比较表明，这些药物在牛蛙中的安全指数相当窄。在实验用非洲爪蟾中使用镇痛药还存在因过度镇静而溺水的额外风险。因此，从这类研究中推断出的、旨在为非洲爪蟾缓解疼痛的药物剂量应非常谨慎地考虑。实验用非洲爪蟾的另一个问题是，这些药物对两栖动物卵子发生、卵母细胞质量和胚胎发生的影响尚不清楚。随着基础研究和生物医学研究中使用的实验用非洲爪蟾数量持续增加，解决所有这些问题的临床研究刻不容缓。
