The domesticated dog has recently become a very important resource as model species for human disease. Purebred dogs have been used in studies as models for Mendelian disorders such as narcolepsy and hereditary kidney cancer. Dogs match humans with their larger generation time and they are often exposed to similar environments as their human owners. Dogs can also be studied using controls and population case studies so that the raising of animals in laboratories is not an issue. Certain pure bred dog breeds are linked with diseases common to their specific breed which makes them easier to map within specific breeds than in humans. Dogs have been used in studies for diseases in humans like cancer, autoinflammatory diseases, retinitis pigmentosa. They can use a database to study about ten different dog breeds and also track inbreeding. Researchers compare coefficient f and kinship coefficient and average them down to two generations in that breed. In random mating both coefficients are similar, so any discrepancy between the two can help measure the tendency of consanguineous matings within a breed. Many dogs are found to be extremely inbred, such as golden retrievers and Labrador retrievers. Greyhounds seem to be one of the only ten breeds with almost no signs of being inbred. The use of highly inbred dogs in disease studies should be avoided because of disease concentration in each specific breed.
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Using dogs in case studies to track and better understand diseases and cancers is a great way to get more information. These animals can be very helpful in the development of further medical advancements.
Although inbred dogs may not be the best study subjects, I still think it is interesting to use them in order to see how different diseases and genetics in general work in correlation with one another. It's possible for some to counteract each other, as well, or to worsen each other. At least that seems logical to me. You never know what you might learn from possible interactions such as these.
ReplyDeleteThat would be amazing if they found a correlation between cancers among dogs and humans.
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