About Beethoven and Other Mice - Page 2 -
Other mouse clinic patients suffer from hypertension, diabetes, or adiposity. In the mouse clinic there are about 5 000 mice, including 450 model animals for human diseases. Only diseases which are caused by viruses or bacteria will not be found here. The mice are housed in ultra-clean cages, in an absolutely sterile environment.
Other mouse clinic patients suffer from hypertension, diabetes, or adiposity. In the mouse clinic there are about 5 000 mice, including 450 model animals for human diseases. Only diseases which are caused by viruses or bacteria will not be found here. The mice are housed in ultra-clean cages, in an absolutely sterile environment. If pathogens penetrated here, many years’ invaluable research work would be destroyed. The mice would be helpless against the pathogens because there are almost no drugs capable of stopping the damaging bacteria or viruses.
The rules and regulations in the mouse clinic are at least as strict as in an operation room. Whoever wants to enter must first pass through a sluice. Then he or she must put on germ-free, sterile clothing and a mask over the mouth and nose. Only after this procedure can the mouse clinic researchers begin with their examinations on the mice.
A mouse clinic patient is waiting at the x-ray computer tomograph for his examination. It is actually a device that was developed to examine people. The researchers set up a prototype that is much smaller, but functions in exactly the same way.
The mouse is slightly anesthetized and then passed through the tomograph. The computer image shows no malformed bones. But before finally diagnosing the skeleton as healthy, a series of additional tests is performed.
In some mouse patients it is clear what disease they have without using any sophisticated technology. For instance, in mice with opacity of the lens of the eye: they suffer from cataracts, an eye disease which occurs in many elderly people. Scientists in the mouse clinic have ascertained that it suffices when only one building block is in the wrong order in the crystalline of the eye lens. Crystalline normally make sure that the lens remains transparent despite its high protein content. Jochen Graw and his working group "Molecular Eye Development" have recently also mutations in the crystalline genes in families that have a history of cataracts.
Another example why the search for diseases in the small rodents is worthwhile.
