Cancer Research on Fetal Pig

[deleted-290678]

Hi,

Since pigs and humans are very similar, is there any possible way to use fetal pigs for cancer prevention research in humans or pigs alike?

Thank you,
NovaStar15

[donnahardy2]

HI NovaStar,

Are you working on a science project?

Pigs have many physiological similarities to humans so do make a good animal model for many studies. What are you thinking about doing?

Donna

[deleted-291782]

Hi NovaStar,

I saw your previous thread about exploring the prostate cancer project and wanted to respond here. For this new project using pigs, just as Donna asked, what do you plan to do? In university-level laboratories, many different animal models are utilized, but mice are heavily used for cancer research. Certain strains of mice are also used for prevention research where we can treat mice with drugs and observe tumor growth over time.

What resources do you have available to you? If you plan to do any type of cell line work or animal work, you will need access to a university-level laboratory for this type of research. Let us know and we can try to help you further.

Best,
Pharma

[deleted-290678]

Hi,

Basically, the question that I asked originally was just a base for if it is possible to use fetal pigs for cancer research. However, the question that I'm more interested in researching is whether or not it's possible to 3D print the fetal pig's cerebral cortex and replace it with the original cerebral cortex via transplant? The purpose of this question was to see if there's a solution to the shrinking of the brain tissue by Alzheimer's Disease.

Thank you,
NovaStar15

[donnahardy2]

Hi NovaStar,

It probably would be possible to use fetal pigs for a cancer research project, however, working with pigs is very expensive, so pigs are usually used for research on anatomical and physiological projects that can't be done with mice or bacteria. For example, here's a research paper that reviews the various applications for pigs in medical research:

http://vet.sagepub.com/content/49/2/344.full

I do not recall ever seeing a science project using fetal pigs.

It might be easier to identify a specific aspect of cancer research that you are interested in, and then plan your experiment. Are you interested in a specific cancer research topic, or are you looking for a project idea?


Donna

[deleted-290678]

Hi Donna,

I already have a fetal pig at my school lab so that's not a problem for me. However, my goal was to use either a fetal pig for cancer research or a way to use 3D printed organs to accomplish that goal. Either way, I need an idea based on my resources: fetal pig or 3D printer and match it with the prevention of cancer or other types of diseases.

Thanks,
NovaStar15

[deleted-291782]

Hi NovaStar,

I think that a cancer prevention project is a great idea, but the resources that you have available may be too limited. For chemoprevention studies in cancer, we often utilize various strains of mice where we have multiple mice in each treatment group. This is done in a special facility housed within a university-level research institute. You would need a model of a fetal pig that is pre-disposed to a certain type of cancer and a treatment scheme in mind in order to set up a prevention study. I can't really address utilizing a 3D printer as I'm not sure how extensively these are used in medical research.

I feel that you could definitely do a project on cancer. I would search around and see what questions you could answer given the resources available to you. Do you have any potential access to a university-level laboratory? Feel free to let us know what ideas you have, and we can help to guide you further.

Best,
Pharma

[deleted-290678]

Hi PharmaMan,

Sadly, I have contacted about 200 science professors so far, and most of them did not respond and the ones that did write back, do not have access to a lab anymore or say that I am too young to work in their lab. So that is why I am hoping to complete a project that is viable either at home or in a high school lab setting. Should I make my cancer prevention project a little less advanced? Also, I saw this project on sciencebuddies.org where it talks about creating an artificial pancreas, do you think that would be a good idea if I could later use that device on people who have diabetes and prove that it works?

Thanks,
NovaStar15

[donnahardy2]

Hi Novastar,

Pharma has made some really good comments about the feasibility of your project. You do need to consider your resources and plan a project that you can actually do.

It sounds like you have put a lot of effort into looking for access to a laboratory. It's not surprising that you did not receive a reply; don't take it personally. Most professors are so busy teaching, doing research, publishing and writing grant proposals that they don't have any extra time to respond to requests like yours.

The artificial pancreas project is a good one, and you would learn a lot in doing it. However, since it is a project idea that has been published, you might consider doing some variation to make it more original.

I have another suggestion. While you are considering the artificial pancreas project, do read the news articles on cancer research from this website:

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... prevention

For a science project you want to do one carefully controlled experiment that will add knowledge to a topic. So read about cancer prevention research and find out what other researchers have been doing. This should give you an idea for a related experiment. Please do post the possible topics that you find and perhaps Pharma and I can suggest an experiment.

Donna

[deleted-290678]

Hi,

From the link that was provided, the topic that I found most intriguing was how diet affects whether or not a person is more vulnerable to cancer. Furthermore, there was one page where it talks about how the fiber-based diet of Asian people might be more effective in preventing cancer versus the Western diet. In addition, can the introduction of spices (ex:turmeric) in our food prevent certain types of cancers?

Thanks

[donnahardy2]

Hi NovaStar15,

I'm glad that you found a topic that interests you. The next step is to identify an experiment that you could do on one of these topics.

Nutritional studies are usually done by interviewing a specific population of people about their dietary habits and then following the people over a period of years. For a cancer study, this could take 20 years or so. Another approach is to test food extract or specific compounds isolated from foods and testing them in mice or rats, or in tissue culture. Working with animals is very expensive and would require approval from your local scientific review committee. Working with tissue culture would require access to a tissue culture lab and would also be very expensive. Please let me know if an animal or tissue culture would be feasible for you.

Foods that have antiinflammatory properties have been associated with reduced cancer risk. Aninflmmatory properties can be measured using human monomuclear cells, which would require access to a lab and to freshly collected blood. Here is a link for a reference for this type of testing: Here is a link for an article that you can access for free:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16166164

Another possibility would be to test the effect of food extracts on the growth of microorganisms. Here is a link for a project idea from this website on this technique: You would need to do more background research to adapt this for your project idea.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p014.shtml

The process of identifying a specific experiment for your project will require some more work, but please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Do you have any ideas for a specific experiment?

Donna