The Pig in Translational Medicine: Visual and Gastro-Intestinal Systems Applications

Scientists are becoming every day more aware that a deep knowledge of an animal used in biomedical science can lead to more reliable data. The translational value of animal models is becoming an important topic of debate due to the high frequency of fail when animal experiments are replicate on humans. The first aim of this work was to better characterize the role of nutrition on the gut microbiota in the pig model. The second aim of my work was to investigate a chemically inducible retinal degeneration pig model. The results lead to a thorough understanding of pig gut microbiota and its modulation to nutritional changes, these understandings are fundamental for the interpretation of data when experiments are conducted on animals. The potential role in reduction and refinement is clear especially considering the pig as the emerging gold standard model for gastro intestinal research. The microencapsulation of iron was found to be protective against the side effects of iron dietary supplementation maintaining the healing effect, opening a new prospective on iron fortified foods. New tools have been established for the assessment of vision in a pig model. An easy visual evaluation behavioral test has been validated, giving to researchers and clinicians the opportunity to assess vision in a sentient pig model. Moreover the pattern electroretinogram (pERG) was recorded for the first time in pigs. The pERG is a sensitive indicator of dysfunction within the macular region and it reflects the integrity of the optics, photoreceptors, bipolar cells and retinal ganglion cells. Hopefully this work will contribute to the translational value of the pig model, which in my opinion is the future gold standard model for gastro-intestinal and vision systems and will completely replace the use of dogs and non-humane primates in biomedical science.