Alternatives to Animal Testing, Experimentation and Dissection Articles from All-Creatures.org




Two More Animal-free Research Successes

From CAARE Citizens for Alternatives to Animal Research
January 2023

Healing wounds with transplanted hair follicles can replace cruel, outdated animal tests ... and... This facial recognition study can replace cruel, invasive brain experiments on animals.

CAARE

Scars mended using transplanted hair follicles

hair follicles

Instead of inflicting painful wounds on the skin of animals which is markedly different from human skin, researchers at Imperial College London, in partnership with Dr Francisco Jiménez of the Mediteknia Clinic in Spain, conducted a novel human-based experiment to see if hair follicles improved the scar healing process.

Inspired by the observation that hairy skin scars less, they transplanted hair follicles into scar tissue on the scalps of three volunteers and took microscope imaged biopsies at various intervals to measure growth. They found that scars with implanted hair follicles exhibited dramatic changes towards healthy, uninjured skin when compares with control scaring.

This insight, made possible through innovative human-relevant studies rather than cruel and outdated animal tests, may lead to better wound healing treatments for both skin and internal organs.

To identify a voice, brains rely on sight

face recognition

Animals are constantly used unnecessarily in cruel experiments that probe their brains to link brain anatomy to function, which is not only inhumane but often yields inapplicable information for humans. New human-based research from the University of Pittsburgh was able to reveal that the same region of the human brain is involved with facial or voice recognition.

The scientists studied five epilepsy patients who had temporary electrodes implanted for a seizure study. Participants were presented with either photographs or voice recordings of three U.S. presidents and tasked with identifying them.

They found that when participants heard the recordings, the part of the brain responsible for processing visual cues exhibited electrical activity, although it was lower in magnitude and slightly delayed when compared with visual identification.

This novel study may aid researchers in learning more about and treating disorders related to compromised facial recognition like dementia.


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