Using Sound to Reduce Pain and Other Advances in Pain Treatment
More than 50 million people in the United States are living with chronic pain—about 20% of American adults—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
KentConnects Blog
Welcome to the KentConnects blog, where we provide tips, best practices, examples, and more helpful information to improve your processes, boost your efficiency, and make your lab work smarter and safer.
Animal Research Leads to Potential New Treatments for Diabetes
More than 37 million people in the United States have diabetes, which is the seventh leading cause of death in the country and is associated with an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney damage, liver disease, and several types of cancer. New preclinical studies show promise as potential treatments for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
Pulse Oximetry Explained
With continuing advances in medical research, small animals such as rats, mice, and gerbils are being used as surgical models. Advanced monitoring devices have been developed to monitor subjects during surgery to improve surgical outcomes and consider increasing concern for humane practices. These devices monitor several vital signs, including blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate, and oxygen saturation level (SpO2).
Research with Mice Yields Important Discoveries About Pregnancy, Birth, and Reproduction
Reproduction is life’s most basic function, and in some ways also its most mysterious. Researchers working with mice and rats have made several recent reproduction-related breakthroughs, including an in vivo cure for infertility in mice, creating rat sperm from stem cells, discovering that a previously disregarded type of estrogen actually plays a crucial role in the development of offspring, creating male-only or female-only mouse litters, and the birth of a healthy baby mouse from an unfertilized egg.
Benefits of Far Infrared Animal Warming Pads
Animal warming pads are widely used by pet owners for heat therapy and to improve the general wellbeing of cats, dogs, and small animals at home. These same benefits of using warming pads for animals apply to clinical settings too. Far infrared animal warming pads are particularly beneficial for rodent research, especially in surgical contexts and for post-surgical recovery.
So, what are the benefits of using far infrared animal warming pads in animal research?
Researchers Work to Solve the Puzzle of Autism
April is National Autism Awareness Month, and researchers worldwide are working to better understand this complex condition.
Rodent Anesthesia Protocols: Maintaining the Right Concentration
Surgical procedures are governed by strict rigorous controls, but the specifics of anesthetic induction are surprisingly nebulous. There are three overarching classes of agent used to induce animal anesthesia: volatile substances; injectables like ketamine; and local anesthetics.
Techniques for Noninvasive Blood Pressure Monitoring
Laboratory animal science is a staple of biomedical research, contributing to countless breakthroughs in drug discovery and novel therapeutics. It is also ever-changing. Researchers are constantly seeking ways to enhance key protocols with the aim of improving animal welfare and surgical outcomes. One of the main avenues of this initiative is achieving greater visibility of small animal vital signs in real-time.
Researchers Look for Causes and Treatments for Long COVID
As the world begins to emerge from the pandemic and new coronavirus infections are on the decline, many people are still suffering the effects of long-haul COVID, a debilitating set of symptoms that has plagued patients and flummoxed the medical community.
Mouse Restraint Techniques: Considerations for Animal Welfare and Research Goals
Routine handling of laboratory mice can improve animal welfare and make them easier to restrain for research procedures. Yet there is conflicting information about the best method of handling and restraint. The conventional technique for handling mice was to grasp them firmly by the base of the tail, but this tail handling method has proven to be aversive. Many studies have shown that capturing and restraining mice by the tail induces anxiety and anhedonia. This not only has a profound impact on the welfare of laboratory animals, but by inhibiting the value of reward, it may also impact the efficacy of scientific studies(1,2).