Animal-based research: New experimental design for an improved
reproducibility

Date:
October 21, 2020
Source:
University of Mu"nster
Summary:
In research, the results of studies must be precise and
reproducible.

Behavioral scientists have been able to demonstrate that a new
experimental design can improve the reproducibility and validity
of results from studies involving animal experiments.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
In research, the results of studies must be precise and reproducible. For
this reason, researchers carried out experiments under strictly
standardized laboratory conditions. However, despite the high standards applied, results from individual studies cannot always be reproduced
in practice. Especially in cases in which animals are used for research purposes and the original study cannot be repeated, this raises severe
ethical questions. For a long time now, researchers have been debating
this aspect under the heading "reproducibility crisis." Behavioural
scientists at the University of Mu"nster have now been able to demonstrate
that a new experimental design can improve the reproducibility and
validity of results from studies involving animal experiments. The study
has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.


========================================================================== Methodology What animal scientists usually understand by "standardized experimental conditions" is that for example all the animals are
tested on the same day in spring, at the same time and by the same
person. Just taking a different season or time, however, can lead to
different findings. Nowadays, there are debates more and more often as
to whether the very strict standardization might not actually be the
cause of numerous non-reproducible results. This is where the empirical
study carried out by the Mu"nster researchers comes in.

Instead of testing all the animals used in an experiment under strictly standardized conditions and at one point in time, the researchers split up
the one big experiment into smaller, individual ones -- so-called 'mini- experiments'. As a result, there were slight differences between 'mini- experiments' in laboratory-specific ambient conditions such as noise level
or temperature. "It's important that the biological variation found in
real life is reflected in the lab," explains Vanessa von Kortzfleisch,
a PhD student with Prof. Helene Richter at the Institute of Neuro-
and Behavioural Biology at Mu"nster University and first author of
the study. "We were able to demonstrate," she adds, "that changing
the design of the experiment slightly has enormous consequences for
the knowledge gained." The new experimental design was tried out on
mice from different breeding lines, with several weeks between each 'mini-experiment'. In order to evaluate the reproducibility of the
results in both experimental designs, the researchers repeated the same behavioural experiment four times in each design.

"The results from the mini-experiment design turned out to be better reproducible than the results from the conventionally used standardized design," says Vanessa von Kortzfleisch.

Improving study designs is one important step towards better reproducible experiments in animal-based research. Although many animal experiments are still indispensable, there is agreement on limiting them to the minimum necessary, with guidance being provided by the "3R concept": replacement, reduction and refinement. The newly developed experimental design is
not only easy to implement in research work, it also makes a significant contribution to the refinement and reduction of such experiments.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Mu"nster. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Vanessa Tabea von Kortzfleisch, Natasha A. Karp, Rupert Palme,
Sylvia
Kaiser, Norbert Sachser, S. Helene Richter. Improving
reproducibility in animal research by splitting the study population
into several `mini- experiments'. Scientific Reports, 2020; 10
(1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020- 73503-4 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201021111611.htm

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