Erin

A seventeen-year-old girl lay quietly listening to the monotonous hum of the hemodialysis machine working steadily to clean her blood that was full of toxins. Her father sat next to her trying to keep her cheerful for the next two and a half hours. A few minutes later a dialysis nurse came to the pair and said that the girl’s surgeon is on the phone. The girl suddenly sat up and gave her father a hopeful but frightened look. They knew that her surgeon would only call for one thing: a donor kidney was found. Her father rushed to the phone while the girl sat anxiously in the chair looking at the dialysis machine, her life line.

Seconds later her father came back with a wondrous smile upon his face. It was at that moment that she knew she would finally be free of the dialysis machine that had become her best friend and foe. The donor was a nineteen-year-old man from Michigan who committed suicide. Six o’clock the next morning I received a kidney transplant, the ultimate gift of life.

It is so wonderful knowing that medical research has come so far. I know that if it weren’t for the development of kidney transplants, then I would still be fighting for my life on dialysis. If it weren’t for the miraculous research of kidney transplants with animals of the past century I wouldn’t be alive today.

The first attempt in organ transplantation was reported to be Emerich Ullmann of Vienna. His first experiment was an autotransplant of a dog’s kidney in its own neck; it worked quite well. The second experiment was transplanting a dog’s kidney in a goat’s neck. The third experiment was a kidney from one dog into another. Both experiments were unsuccessful.

One problem that researchers faced was maintaining normal blood circulation to a transplanted organ. Dr. Alexis Carrel, a researcher in blood vessel surgery came up with a solution. In 1902, Carrel developed a surgical technique that successfully sutured blood vessels. Six years later he tried, without luck, dog and cat kidney transplants. The animals lived no longer than a week or two. Carrel stated that there was a "biological incompatibility" between the donor and recipient. He firmly believed that it was a barrier that could never be overcome.

Joseph E. Murray, a Harvard graduate, disagreed with Carrel. He already knew recent studies had shown that neonatal exposure to foreign tissue in cattle may result in tolerance to the tissue. Murray also discovered procedures to rejoin vascular systems. He also developed ways to produce urine excretions in transplanted animals.

In 1954, Murray transplanted an identical twin’s kidney into the other twin with success. The man lived for about eight years and married his recovery room nurse. It was then established that identical genetic make-up was crucial in deciding the outcome of a transplant.

A major hurdle dealing with organ transplants was how to stop an organ from rejecting its foreign host (not everyone has an identical twin). P.B. Medawar of England worked on experiments with rats in an effort to find a way for the organ to accept the host. He learned that if a rat was injected with a donor antigen in utero, then the rat would accept the donor organ after birth. In adult rats he discovered that a mixture of sublethal radiation and immunosuppressants could produce similar results. The findings also pertain to dogs and humans.

Murray stated that Medawar’s findings with adult rats were unsuccessful. Immunosuppressants were introduced in the 1950s and 60s to fight organ rejection. Murray and Dr. Roy Calne of London tested the drugs on patients receiving kidney transplants. Nearly all the patients were surviving after a year. The studies of immunosuppressants resulted in a huge increase in kidney transplants worldwide.

Studies to find better drugs to fight organ transplant rejections are progressing each day. Dr. Andrew Lazarovits of the University of Western Ontario has discovered a drug named CD45RB that could entirely eliminate organ rejections. Small scale tests could be underway on humans by later this year.

It has almost been two years since I received my kidney transplant. Even though my health is absolutely wonderful, I am uncertain about my future. I realize that all the research of transplant drugs being conducted on animals might make my future brighter. I may be the one to make a significant impact on how transplant recipients live. My goal is to become a researcher dealing with organ transplants and diseases crippling society. I wish to give the gift of life to others.

A Mexican hairless dog, regardless of its inherent demonic appearance has lent himself and his naked epidermal layer to the vanity of man. The Mexican hairless is dually cursed, though he be naked, a second affliction plagues the hide of this rodentian canine; his skin is horribly covered with innumerable comedones, or blackheads. The scientific and medical communities have ingeniously capitalized upon this for the development and testing of acne drugs, primarily of the class referred to as retinoids. This may ire the malfortuned dog, yet more importantly said testing lends to the betterment of life for the Human Race.

Nearly every member of the human race is at some point in their life is a victim of it, invading the pores of your skin as it infects your body, reproducing and mutating at an alarming rate it festers and forms that horrible cyst, blatantly obvious, a brand to the outside world, painful, ugly, and repulsive to the opposite sex; it is the pimple. I personally can attest to the improvement in the psychological welfare, not to mention the social life, of a young person who has managed to shed themselves of this pubescent leprosy. In today’s ephemeral world, much of a person’s self worth is based upon how they are treated by peers and social acquaintances, which in turn is pivotal largely upon the physical appearance of an individual. Unfortunately acne impacts this peer perception greatly. As a freshman and sophomore in high school, having a face pocked by acne cysts, I did not perceive my social standing as what might be described as popular or desirable; I was not confident, inhibited, remove and often depressed. At the end of my sophomore year in a last ditch effort to clear the lesions from my skin, one of my physicians prescribed a rigorous course of drugs including Retin-A a commercial form of the drug tretinoin. One year later my face, which had once been greatly unmanageable and stressful, is free of all blemishes excepting an occasional red blemish, many of my inhibitions have resolved themselves as peers and acquaintances have become more open to an improved man, and self confidence restored has allowed me to become more outgoing and confident. Acne, whether in form of the large red pustules cysts common to acne conglotaba, or the less visible, yet equally tormenting, acne Vulgaris which, with its blanket of blackheads and spattered pustules, has intensified the rigors of adolescence in the lives of numerous youth throughout the annals of time. Though acne may not be considered a major health risk, save in the most extreme of cases, removal of this impediment would lighten the load for the hordes of hormone stricken acne sufferers.

The Mexican hairless dog may be considered a compadre by acne sufferers everywhere, for this minute canine has a gargantuan acne problem; much of his skin is covered with the comedones typical to acne vulgaris. This, as well as the inherent trait of hairlessness, makes him a prime candidate for testing of acne drugs. The Department of Dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia conducted a test involving tretinoin – the same drug used in the treatment of my condition – ending in January of 1996, which noted that a "striking reduction in the number of comedones" afflicting their lab subject, a Mexican hairless who endured 14 weeks of treatment with tretinoin. In October of the same year a report was published by the Research Center of Nihon Nosan Kogyo Co. of Ibaraki, Japan which stated "Plugged follicles in the skin of hairless dogs were grossly and histologically similar to the acne vulgaris observed in human beings." Hairless dogs have served as an ideal test subject for drugs intended for the treatment of acne in human beings as they have presented a way in which pharmacologists and other members of the scientific and medical fields may adequately test the effectiveness of a potentially harmful experimental drug as well as its side effects before its release for prescription or over the counter purchase by the general public. In the case of tretinoin several side effects have been found and are published on both the physician’s information card and the patient information packaged with the medication. This was made possible by test animals such as the Mexican hairless. Without the information gathered from tests conducted on laboratory animals such as the Mexican hairless, beneficial drugs like tretinoin may remain undiscovered or the deleterious side effects caused by this and many other drugs may leave many suffering without a means by which to rectify the damage, both physical and psychological, that is caused by acne. Tests like these mentioned involving the Mexican hairless at the University of Pennsylvania and the Japanese corporation have made it feasible for people like myself and others who suffered from acne to enjoy a heightened quality of life.

The delicacy of life is never fully recognized until it is unmercifully taken away. Starting as only a minute imperfection, these abnormalities go virtually unnoticed, but through the passage of time, comes the inevitable. This small mar in the Human masterpiece grows exponentially, and the perfect balance of a human life is shattered, as one foreign cell mutates, and takes absolute control of a once powerful body. One cell is forced to surrender to its DNA, the DNA that once was the key to perfect balance; no longer possessing the competence to destroy itself. My grandfather’s cancer began as nothing more than a flaw. A flaw that only the cell itself understood. However, that knowledge did not remain contained for long. A malignant tumor in her right breast soon became multiple tumors spreading from their origin to invade her entire body. After too brief a time, the cancer was making its dominant presence known. Her body was loosening its dwindling grip of control. By the time my grandmother set forth to seek a cure for her disease, cancer had already set her bleak fate. It is commonly shown that the original tumor can be treated quite successfully, however the metastasis of the original tumor causes many complications in the treatment of cancer. My grandmother lost her fight with cancer, but during the short duration of her battle a sense of relief was obtained through biomedical research conducted on animals.

By the time the oncologist was able to assess my grandmothers situation, the only thing that he could do for her was ease the pain of her dwindling life. Removal of the tumors, a mastectomy, and treatment with chemotherapy were the best chances at making her last days as fulfilling as possible. Chemotherapy, in this case, is the use of chemical agents in the treatment or control of cancer. Chemotherapy would not, however, be an option without the help of the many animals whose lives were put to use for this exhausting search for a fight against cancer. Before this treatment was administered to humans it had to be tested. The experimentation of this "cure" was first administered to rats and mice, due to the fact that both rats and mice can be used profitably to reveal the role of environmental and endogenous factors in mammary carcinogens, to understand the mechanisms involved in the carcinogenic process, and display the effects of chemical therapy on mammary tumors. Rats, mice, dogs and cats, have given their lives so that we are able to forge ahead in the war against the life stripping disease of cancer. The knowledge gained through the study and experimentation of these animals, will one day bring a cure for a disease of which we still don’t quite understand.

"It is the experiment on the living animal that final reference must always be made to reach an understanding of organic properties." These words were written in 1856 by Claude Bernard, the great French physiologist, and one of the founders of experimental medicine. These words could have easily been written today, for no amount of laboratory testing with tissue cultures, and cell lines, can compare with the results achieved from the biomedical testing of "cures" and "treatments" on animals.

Knowing, yet not accepting her dismal future, my grandmother imagined a quick turnaround in her condition that regrettably didn’t exist. She told herself that the cancer would go away. It started as an imperfection. A small mistake not even noticed at first. The perfect balance of a human life was shattered as one cell mutated. Current evidence indicates that most tumors began as lumps and only over time become cancerous. My grandmother had time to "make the cancer go away" but she didn’t. The cancer grew in strength and stature, while my grandmother faded away. Those who catch this disease early on are able to fight it with invasive surgeries and chemotherapy (along with other treatments). The live in pain and discomfort through these treatments. However, these treatments are what allowed my grandmother’s last months of life to be livable. Her life was not saved through research, but many lives will be. There is a cure for cancer, and it will be found. The animals whose lives were taken for this research will bring forth life with a cure.

Follow-Up Essay by Aubrey, Internship completed at Harrington Arthritis Research Center

Only with death can life flourish. This is one of times reoccurring themes as one species gives way for another to prosper. Today man is the greatest species known to reign on this, his earth. To sustain this role and further our knowledge man must experiment, test thoughts and theories, to gain a greater understanding of the biosphere we reside upon.

We as a species have come to realize that size is not a determination of strength. It is found that the simplest of life forms can cause the greatest destruction. Through biomedical testing man can uncover the secrets of all of these enemies, whose sole purpose in existing is to conquer man’s existence. From bacteriophages, coca, and parasites, to our power source, DNA. These microscopic killers can and do destroy. From experiences and knowledge gained in my summer of internship at Harrington Arthritis Research Center, a reassurance of the need and importance of biomedical testing has been instilled upon me.

My first experience at Harrington involved a trauma certification practical. This particular session involved two groups of first-year residents. As these fresh med-school graduates strutted into the experimental surgery lab, I was dumbfounded by their hubris outlook on their immediate situation. Apparently they were unaware as to what they were about to get into. Their overconfidence was completely shattered when only one of the sixteen pupils was able to perform the venues cut down, one of the four procedures required for the practical. As their session progressed, one could see the humility permeating the atmosphere, and as these newly benevolent students retreated form their subjects, their joy for their knowledge of which instrument was a scalpel was as evident on their faces as their pompous jeering seen when they arrived.

After the residents retreated from the lab, I was able to speak with Laura, the vet technician supervising the lab, about the students. I expressed my complete and utter gratitude for the fact that the procedures were performed on the pigs instead of me. Laura expressed similar gratitude, and explained that this was one of those moments when the need for biomedical testing and research in general are completely reaffirmed for her. Another colleague relayed his agreement in telling of the poor treatment that these animals receive before arriving at Harrington and that they are treated with more respect and dignity then they would have otherwise received.

In addition to time spent in the experimental surgery lab at Harrington, a large percentage of my internship was devoted to the histology lab. There is where the true results of research are unveiled. Preparing, embedding, and sectioning the specimens along with grinding, polishing and acid etching are only the preparatory steps to unmaking the results that come from the combination of a bio-mass and an implant or mistake, integrated by the researchers tests, and of which the staining procedures will reveal the results. The histomorphology is the reading of these slides and the features revealed by the processes taken to prepare them. Through different techniques, anything form blood cells to bone structure and growth can be revealed. These stains open the view to inspect what really comes out of an experiment, and the greatest thrill is to observe the brilliance of the slides after the final staining and cover slipping is completed.

There are many aspects to biomedical research. Projects and ideas cannot just be conducted; ideas must be presented, processes must be compiled, and initial research must be conducted. Then, with work and determination, an idea can become reality, and someone’s life may be saved. From students learning patience, to the results of a research project finally revealed with the staining of a slide, all aspects of biomedical research are essential to pursuing cures and preparing a new generation of individuals who desire to save just one more life.

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