Abstract
The determination of the cause of a laboratory animal’s death in gerontological experiments has become extraordinarily urgent in connection with the appearance of ideas on the programmed death of organisms. Unfortunately, the past approach to diagnosis of fatal and incidental changes based only on data of autopsy and histopathology (according to the human pathology model) is not correct for laboratory rodents. Nevertheless, the exact determination of death causes is principally possible in the future under conditions of adequate experimental design (including a large set of clinical, physiological, biochemical, and morphological examinations). However, it seems that even in this case causes of some experimental animal’s death will remain unclear.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- IARC:
-
International Agency for Research on Cancer
- ICD-10:
-
International Classification of Disease, 10th revision
- SPF:
-
specific pathogen free
References
Skulachev, V. P. (1999) Phenoptosis: programmed death of an organism, Biochemistry (Moscow), 64, 1418–1426.
Longo, V. D., Mitteldorf, J., and Skulachev, V. P. (2005) Programmed and altruistic ageing, Nature Rev. Genet., 6, 866–872.
Skulachev, V. P. (2012) What is “phenoptosis” and how to fight it? Biochemistry (Moscow), 77, 689–706.
Kircher, T., and Anderson, R. E. (1987) Cause of death. Proper completion of the death certificate, J. Am. Med. Assoc., 258, 349–352.
Murray, C. J. L., and Lopez, A. D. (2013) Measuring the global burden of disease, N. Engl. J. Med., 369, 448–457.
Strukov, A. I., and Serov, V. V. (1995) Pathological Anatomy [in Russian], Meditsina, Moscow.
Sheppard, M. N. (2012) Aetiology of sudden cardiac death in sport: a histopathologist’s perspective, Br. J. Sports Med., 46, 15–21.
De Noronha, S. V., Sharma, S., Papadakis, M., Desai S., Whyte, G., and Sheppard, M. N. (2009) Aetiology of sudden cardiac death in athletes in the United Kingdom: a pathological study, Heart, 95, 1409–1414.
Moscow WHO Center for International Classification of Diseases (1999) International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Health-Related Causes (the 10th Revision) (ICD-10) [in Russian], Meditsina, Moscow, pp. 1–3.
Berkowitz, C. D. (2012) Sudden infant death syndrome, sudden unexpected infant death, and apparent life-threatening events, Adv. Pediatr., 59, 183–208.
Evans, A., Bagnall, R. D., Duflou, J., and Semsarian, C. (2013) Postmortem review and genetic analysis in sudden infant death syndrome: an 11-year review, Hum. Pathol., 44, 1730–1736.
Liebrechts-Akkerman, G., Bovee, J. V., Wijnaendts, L. C., Maes, A., Nikkels, P. G., and de Krijger, R. R. (2013) Histological findings in unclassified sudden infant death, including sudden infant death syndrome, Pediatr. Dev. Pathol., 16, 168–176.
Rampatige, R., Riley, I., Gamage, S., Paoin, W., and Upham, S. (2012) Handbook for Doctors on Cause-of-death Certification, Health Information Systems Knowledge Hub, Canberra.
Manchester City Council (2007) Death Certification Guidance for Doctors Certifying Cause of Death, Manchester.
Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust (2012) Medical Certificate of Cause of Death Notes for Doctors, Southampton.
Reynolds, D. L., Nguyen, V. C., and Clarke, E. A. (1991) Reliability of cancer mortality statistics in Ontario: a comparison of incident and death diagnoses, 1979–1983, Can. J. Public Health, 82, 120–126.
Redelings, M. D., Wise, M., and Sorvillo, F. (2007) Using multiple cause-of-death data to investigate associations and causality between conditions listed on the death certificate, Am. J. Epidemiol., 166, 104–108.
Wall, M., Huang, J., Oswald, J., and McCullen, D. (2005) Factors associated with reporting multiple causes of death, BMC Med. Res. Methodol., 5, 4.
Lindahl, B. I., and Johansson, L. A. (1994) Multiple cause-of-death data as a tool for detecting artificial trends in the underlying cause statistics: a methodological study, Scand. J. Soc. Med., 22, 145–158.
Mohr, U. (1996) Pathobiology of Aging Mouse, Vols. 1/2, ILSI Press, Washington, D.C.
Maronpot, R. R. (1999) Pathology of the Mouse, Cache River Press, Vienna, Illinois.
Percy, D. H., and Barthold, S. W. (2007) Pathology of Laboratory Rodents and Rabbits, Iowa State University Press, Ames.
Son, W. C. (2003) Factors contributory to early death of young CD-1 mice in carcinogenicity studies, Toxicol. Lett., 145, 88–98.
Peto, R., Pike, M. C., Day, N. E., Gray, R. G., Lee, P. N., Parish, S., Peto, J., Richards, S., and Wahrendorf, J. (1980) Guidelines for simple, sensitive significance tests for carcinogenic effects in long-term animal experiments, IARC Monogr. Eval. Carcinog. Risks Chem. Hum. Suppl., 2(Suppl.), 311–326.
Peto analysis working group of STP (2001) Draft recommendations on classification of rodent neoplasms for Peto analysis, Toxicol. Pathol., 29, 265–268.
Solleveld, H. A., and McConnell, E. E. (1985) The value and significance of life span and scheduled termination data in long-term toxicity and carcinogenesis studies, Toxicol. Pathol., 13, 128–134.
Ettlin, R. A., Stirnimann, P., and Prentice, D. E. (1994) Causes of death in rodent toxicity and carcinogenicity studies, Toxicol. Pathol., 22, 165–178.
Kodell, R. L., Blackwell, B. N., Bucci, T. J., and Greenman, D. L. (1995) Cause-of-death assignment at the National Center for Toxicological Research, Toxicol. Pathol., 23, 241–247.
Maita, K., Hirano, M., Harada, T., Mitsumori, K., Yoshida, A., Takahashi, K., Nakashima, N., Kitazawa, T., Enomoto, A., Inui, K., and Shirasu, Y. (1988) Mortality, major cause of moribundity, and spontaneous tumors in CD-1 mice, Toxicol. Pathol., 16, 340–349.
Tucker, M. J. (1997) Diseases of the Wistar Rat, Taylor & Francis, London.
Bucher, J. R. (2002) The National Toxicology Program rodent bioassay: designs, interpretations, and scientific contributions, Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., 982, 198–207.
Buffenstein, R. (2005) The naked mole-rat: a new long-living model for human aging research, J. Gerontol. (A. Biol. Sci. Med. Sci.), 60, 1369–1377.
Delaney, M. A., Nagy, L., Kinsel, M. J., and Treuting, P. M. (2013) Spontaneous histological lesions of the adult naked mole rat (Heterocephalus glaber): a retrospective survey of lesions in a zoo population, Vet. Pathol., 50, 607–621.
Svaninger, G., Gelin, J., and Lundholm, K. (1989) The cause of death in non-metastasizing sarcoma-bearing mice. A study with relevance for tumor treatment experiments in mice, Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol., 25, 1295–1302.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Original Russian Text © V. N. Manskikh, 2014, published in Biokhimiya, 2014, Vol. 79, No. 10, pp. 1324–1331.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Manskikh, V.N. The problem of determination of cause of laboratory animal’s death: A critical review of definitions of “fatal” and “incidental” lesions. Biochemistry Moscow 79, 1075–1080 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297914100095
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0006297914100095