BACKGROUND AND IMPACT
The revolutionary discoveries of earlier centuries gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment. Vesalius, a Flemish physician and anatomist, is frequently recognised as the father of anatomy.
Greek physician Galen (c. 129-216 AD) had already developed basic medical theories that were taken for granted for centuries. The understanding of physiology by Galen was greatly impacted by the works of Hippocrates (460-377 BC), Aristotle (384-322 BC), and Plato (427-347 BC). Galen believed that the balance of four humours (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm) was essential to human health.Each humour had two elements from fire, earth, air, and water and had two primary qualities: hot, cold, wet, and dry. Galen believed that abnormalities in these humours might harm individual organs or the entire body. He provided precise medicines to restore the body’s homeostasis. Galen’s views ruled medicine until the mid-1600s.
The animals utilised in various studies and inquiries are linked to the evolution of humanity. Although there is evidence that Aristotle used animals to understand the human body in ancient Greece, the main breakthrough in animal models occurred in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries with scientists such as Jean Baptiste Van Helmont, Francesco Redi, John Needham, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Lavoisier, and Pasteur who studied the origin of life using animal models. At the same time, human physiology, anatomy, disease, and pharmacology were explored using animal models.
Since therapeutic success and drug safety are the most crucial factors for a medication or medical device considered for use in the human model, the significance of animal models has increased significantly in recent decades due to impressive advancements in drug discovery, biomedicine, and pre-clinical trials. Since animals’ physiologies and morphology are so similar to those of humans - especially mammals - animal models have been used scientifically for ages to study biology and develop new medications.
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