In Tomsk, laboratory mice were replaced with artificial “phantoms” in dangerous experiments

The development will help to explore new methods of radiation therapy without the need to expose living beings to lethal doses of radiation.

Scientists at Tomsk Polytechnic University have created “phantoms” — artificial copies of laboratory mice and rats. They are supposed to replace animals in dangerous and potentially lethal experiments, Metro newspaper reported citing the university’s press service.

In particular, “phantoms” can be used to study new methods of radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer. These studies require a large number of experiments, in which masses of animals are killed.

As Sergei Stucherbov, associate professor at the Research School of High Energy Process Physics at Tomsk Polytechnic University, explained to the scientific team leader, the “phantoms” originally emerged as physical models of the human body or its individual parts, created to suit the individual characteristics of specific patients. 3D printing is considered to be the best way to produce them.

While working on “phantoms” for humans, the idea of replacing laboratory animals with artificial replicas in radiation therapy research arose.

The scientist noted that rats and mice pose a range of problems and issues.

“These are, of course, ethics, the difficulties of keeping them, the handling and disposal itself. That is why we decided to try to make ‘phantoms’ for rats and mice,” the publication quotes the specialist as saying.

The main challenges in developing the ‘phantoms’ were related to the printing process, as a special device capable of simultaneously using several types of material of different densities and also creating the polymers themselves for production was needed to create the models.

Sergei Stucherbov added that complex and meticulous work was required to make the finished “phantom” as close to a living organism as possible. Its materials must react to X-rays, gamma rays and electron beams in the same way as organic tissue.

The ‘phantom’ has skin, brain and spinal cord, muscle, bone and lung tissue. The different types of soft tissue, such as muscle and fat, required fine-tuning of the printing, but the work done allowed the model to be as close to its animal counterpart as possible. The special plastic helped to mimic the reactions that occur in the body when interacting with ionising radiation.

The researcher hopes that the “phantoms” will eventually replace laboratory animals to the maximum extent possible when researching dose-load calculations on tissues. Mice and rats will not be totally abandoned in the near future, but scientists may find ways to minimise their involvement in inhumane procedures.

Cover photo: TPU Press Service