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Ethical Considerations and Histopathological Analysis in Atherosclerosis Research

The study performed by Shamsi Sadat Mosavi et al. 2023 highlights the effect of Omega-3 and resveratrol in mice atherosclerosis through histopathological changes (reduction of fat area progression and aortic wall thickness). Sixty 6-week-old male C57BL/6 laboratory mice from the Pasteur Institute of Iran were selected, and randomly divided into six groups (ten per each group) to perform a 10-week trial. The research concluded that both Omega-3 and resveratrol have an impact in preventing mice atherosclerosis, suggesting a comparative investigation is needed for further potential effects. This study was carried with all the mice housed in plastic cages, stainless-steel grid lid and wood shaving scattered on the floor. The vivarium was maintained at 23? on a 12-h light dark cycle with lights off at 7pm and were feed a regular commercial mouse diet, while food and water were freely accessible. The imitation of living manners of mice attempts to minimise any impact to the natural behaviour, which reduced the animals' unnecessary pain. The Resveratrol and Omega-3 derived for this experiment were non-invasive (added to the drinking water of the animals), hence minimised the risk of infection and premature death of subjects. This study was performed in accordance with the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals from the National Research Council's Guide, and is approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Tehran University of Medical Science (Approval number: 94- 03-191-30,088). I will argue that this study is conducted under ethical standards, yet further consideration on animal euthanasia is necessary. At the end of the trial, the mice were fasted between 8 to 12 hours, then were killed by carbon dioxide (CO2) inhalation to collect blood and investigate heart tissues. Following the ethical guidelines from the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, euthanasia should be carried to avoid distress, which inhalant offers advantages to kill in large numbers (National Research Council 2010). Yet, the guidelines also mentioned the methods for CO2 euthanasia in rodents need further study to be optimised due to mice's resistance to the hypoxia- inducing effects of CO2, requiring longer exposure times to the agent (National Research Council 2010). The level of pain intensified, therefore more appropriate methods involving other anaesthesia gas can be considered for less long-term negative procedures. My opinion aligns with the utilitarian framework - the unethical perception of animal sacrifice can be justified by the morally significant purpose of the research. The animal suffering must be compensated for by the optimal experimental result to produce greater benefits. Histopathological changes have not been studied well (Shamsi Sadat Mosavi et al. 2023), thus the experimental results allow further pursuit of treatment for atherosclerosis on humans. The potential utility of experimental results are beneficial, demonstrating from the strong p-values (for instance, p=0.003 for fat area reduction), while unnecessary trauma (excluding the euthanasia process) was minimised. The research was demonstrated as to look for an easy way to record histopathological changes (Shamsi Sadat Mosavi et al. 2023). Due to the nature of this study, I believe the investigation content