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CAVEATS REGARDING THE USE OF THE LABORATORY RATS AS A MODEL FOR ACUTE TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES: MODULATION OF THE TOXIC RESPONSE VIA PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS
Citation:
Watkinson, W. AND C. Gordon. CAVEATS REGARDING THE USE OF THE LABORATORY RATS AS A MODEL FOR ACUTE TOXICOLOGICAL STUDIES: MODULATION OF THE TOXIC RESPONSE VIA PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BEHAVIORAL MECHANISMS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/J-95/085.
Description:
The rodent, specifically the inbred laboratory rat, is the primary experimental animal used in toxicology testing. Despite its popularity, recent studies from our laboratory and others raise a number of questions concerning the rat's appropriateness as an animal model for toxicological studies. While there are undoubtedly additional areas in which the rat and other small rodents fail to adequately mimic the human response to xenobiotic agents, this article deals primarily with the area of temperature regulation. Specifically, this article reviews the thermoregulatory response of the laboratory rat following acute exposure to toxic agents and examines the impact of this response on the extrapolation of toxicological data from experimental animals to humans.