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Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

sciencemag.org

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Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#21

Post by poidos »

standardUser wrote: post #3

Two things really stood out in this article. One is how brutal animal experimentation can be. The other is the opening line.

Back when I was a pre-med, my first summer research internship was in a cancer lab. After a couple of weeks of cell culture and autoclaving stuff, they let me start working with the mice. They were inducing lung cancer in them to test some novel compound that was supposed to cure the cancer. Every day, I'd have to go to the mice room, swap in fresh water and food, and then bag all the dead mice individually in rubber gloves, and leave them on my supervisor's desk. Really opened my eyes.

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#22

Post by jawarner »

bostonsre wrote: post #14
nonameiguess wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In one group of 11 mice, four had their intestines scrubbed to thin the mucosal lining and improve oxygen absorption. Next, the researchers injected pure, pressurized oxygen into the rectums of the scrubbed mice and four of the seven unscrubbed ones. I don't even want to know how they do this and whose terrible job this is.

Yea... poor mice.. hopefully they weren't awake.

Yeah, the animals were put under anesthesia.

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#23

Post by geocrasher »

I might get downvoted for this, but here it goes:

Lets say that your life depends on intestinal ventilation, and you've got a steady flow of oxygenated fluids going into the uh... places... and you need to go number 2? Is it a race to see how quick you can "go" before you get hypoxic and die? Does the constant flow of oxygenated material flush out any waste? It's like wondering "how does Cat Dog go #2" I suppose. But... really. How does it?

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#24

Post by newsbinator »

keiferski wrote: post #13
GordonS wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read a lot of medical research papers, and I've been thinking about this recently. Every time I read about a rat being "euthanized" or "sacrificed", when they have neuropathy induced by toxins, when they have limbs amputated, when they have their spine severed... I can't help but pause for a moment and think about that animal. I wonder if there are any good estimates of how many rats, rabbits, dogs and otherwise ar…

> It is estimated that the annual use of vertebrate animals—from zebrafish to non-human primates—ranges from tens to more than 100 million.[2] In the European Union, vertebrate species represent 93% of animals used in research, and 11.5 million animals were used there in 2011. By one estimate the number of mice and rats used in the United States alone in 2001 was 80 million.[3] Mice, rats, fish, amphibians and reptil…

After all this time, I still have no idea how I feel about tortuous animal testing for medical breakthroughs.

It's a trolley problem with an unknown number of people on Track A and an unknown number of animals on Track B.

I don't even know how I feel about replacing animals in these experiments with human violent offenders.

Can we justify experimenting on a known serial killer if the experiment will save a million children's lives in the next 10 years? I don't know.

If an alien species were using us for their medical experiments, under the same circumstances and conditions, then what would I say?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#28

Post by [deleted] »

GordonS wrote: post #11
standardUser wrote: post #3

Two things really stood out in this article. One is how brutal animal experimentation can be. The other is the opening line.

I read a lot of medical research papers, and I've been thinking about this recently. Every time I read about a rat being "euthanized" or "sacrificed", when they have neuropathy induced by toxins, when they have limbs amputated, when they have their spine severed... I can't help but pause for a moment and think about that animal. I wonder if there are any good estimates of how many rats, rabbits, dogs and otherwise ar…

[deleted]

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#29

Post by justAnIdea »

standardUser wrote: post #3

Two things really stood out in this article. One is how brutal animal experimentation can be. The other is the opening line.

I don't think this is that bad as far as animal experimentation goes. Sadly, it can get a lot worse than suffocation.

Re: Mammals can absorb oxygen through their intestines

#30

Post by rajin444 »

poidos wrote: post #21
standardUser wrote: post #3

Two things really stood out in this article. One is how brutal animal experimentation can be. The other is the opening line.

Back when I was a pre-med, my first summer research internship was in a cancer lab. After a couple of weeks of cell culture and autoclaving stuff, they let me start working with the mice. They were inducing lung cancer in them to test some novel compound that was supposed to cure the cancer. Every day, I'd have to go to the mice room, swap in fresh water and food, and then bag all the dead mice individually in rubber…

I've always found some solace in not being wasteful. In theory we're working towards a better future - harming animals now will result in world with no harm for an infinite number of descendants later.

This is more or less "do the ends justify the means", but we live in a zero sum universe, so every action we take has to answer this question (if I eat this food, somebody else can't eat it). It's a matter of determining what we think justifies the cost.

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