ANIMALS
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Providing nonhuman primates with a more natural environment is just one aspect of the highly regulated procedures that researchers in Wilson Hall follow to safeguard the animals that are used for scientific investigations. The five faculty of the Department of Psychology use a variety of animals, from fish to Macaque monkeys, to learn about how the brain works.

The researchers conduct studies under the vigilant eyes of Vanderbilt’s Animal Care and Use Committee (ACC), a group that reviews proposed and ongoing studies involving animal subjects. Laws extending from the Animal Welfare Act as well as National Institutes of Health policy require that all universities conducting animal research have an ACC.

The committee is composed of 15 people with varied interests and affiliations, said David Wasserman, professor of molecular physiology and biophysics and chair of the ACC. Currently, the committee

How Vanderbilt uses animal testing

Wilson Hall: Research with animals aims to elucidate how the brain is organized and how the function of the brain relates to behavior.

Vanderbilt Vision Research Center: Investigators are interested in learning how we see. They are trying to find out how visual information is processed, and how the visual system develops.Some conduct studies, using primates, to learn how the physiology and anatomy of the brain relate to perception. Others are trying to learn how close the visual systems of non-human primates are to those of humans to extend the clinical applications of animal research.

Department of Psychology: Investigators are also interested in the phenomena of plasticity in the brain in adults and during development. Research on the adaptability of the brain is important for understanding learning and memory and also for understanding how the brain recovers from injury. This work is also important for understanding how drugs such as alcohol affect the formation and adaptability of the brain.
includes Vanderbilt faculty members in the humanities and the sciences, veterinarians, and a community member with no affiliation with Vanderbilt.

“I consider members of the ACC to be individuals who are truly concerned about animal welfare,” Wasserman said. “They know we need animal research ... but they care enough about the animals to serve on the ACC, without any compensation for their time.”

The approval process for studies involving animals is extensive.

“Members of the Animal Care and Use Committee must judge and, if necessary, modify the procedures proposed by investigators,” Wasserman said.

The proposals must be very detailed and must account precisely for the use of animals. Once a study has been approved, researchers must submit annual reports to the ACC to update the committee as to any changes that have been made.

“When we evaluate [proposals], we make sure that all procedures are humane and necessary for the questions being asked,” Wasserman said. “We also ask that researchers supply a literature search. This ensures that the research question is not redundant, or can’t be answered in some other way.”

Very few studies get approved without being modified, according to the director of the Division of Animal Care, Joan Richerson, one of the veterinarians who serves on the committee.

The committee classifies each study as one of three types: Type A studies do not contain any procedures that could cause the animals pain or distress; Type B studies could cause pain or distress, but measures are taken that alleviate the discomfort; pain and distress is likely for animals used in Type C studies, but analgesics are not administered because they would invalidate the study.

Wasserman estimated that “less than 5 percent of the studies done are categorized as Type C.”

More information is asked of researches proposing Type B and C studies, Richerson said. “The level of scrutiny really goes up for the Type C studies,” she said.

The committee seeks to do three things when it evaluates the proposals.

“We want to refine the studies, reduce the number of animals that have to be involved and replace the animals being involved,” Richerson said. “It is not the purpose of the [ACC] to judge the scientific merit.”

The grant review committee is more qualified to review the validity of research questions, according to Wasserman.

Besides evaluating research proposals, the ACC inspects all of the animal housing facilities on campus twice each year. The USDA also performs regular, unannounced inspections of the facilities. In addition, Vanderbilt undergoes a voluntary review by the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care to maintain accreditation as a superior animal care and use program.

Because the guidelines for animal use are so seriously enforced, it would be effectively impossible for a Vanderbilt scientist to use or keep animals in a way that the government or the University would consider inappropriate, Schall said.

A variety of animal species serve as subjects for research at Vanderbilt. According to Richerson, 92.9 percent of the animals used are rodents, and rabbits constitute 2 percent. No other species accounts for more than 1 percent of the total number of animals used.

Where does Vanderbilt get the animals they use? “Most of the animals are purpose bred for animal research,” Wasserman said.

A recent report in a local publication said that VUMC purchases live cats from Nashville’s animal control center for research use. “Less than 50 cats are obtained from the Metro pound each year,” Richerson said. “The cats are almost all adopted.”

The adoption rate of the cats at VUMC, which are used in intubation studies, is about 85 percent. While exact numbers weren’t available, a staffer at Metro Animal Control estimated that fewer than 10 percent of cats at the shelter were adopted.

Some of the research involving animals conducted at Vanderbilt has led to important medical developments.

“Much of what we know about the regulation of blood glucose has come out of Vanderbilt research [involving animals],” Wasserman said. “There is not a [proposal] submitted that is not somehow linked to improving the quality of life for people.”

In 1971, Vanderbilt researcher Earl Sutherland won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for discovering the mechanisms of the actions of hormones using mammalian livers.

The 1986 Nobel Prize was shared by Vanderbilt’s Stanley Cohen, Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and American Cancer Society Research Professor of Biochemistry, whose work with mice, chicks and snakes lead to a greater understanding of nerve and epidermal growth factors.

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