Randomized Block Experimental Designs Can Increase the Power and Reproducibility of Laboratory Animal Experiments
Randomized Block Experimental Designs Can Increase the Power and Reproducibility of Laboratory Animal Experiments
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DOI：
10.1093/ilar/ilu045
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发表时间：
2014-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.5
通讯作者：
Festing, Michael F. W.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Festing, Michael F. W.
随机区组试验设计在农业和工业研究中已广泛应用了几十年。通常，它们更强大，具有更高的外部效度，更少受到偏见的影响，并且比通常用于实验室动物研究的完全随机设计产生更多的可重复结果。通过使用时间作为区块因子，可以进一步提高复制率。这些好处可以在没有额外费用的情况下实现。一个小型实验研究了抗氧化剂对四种近交系小鼠肝酶活性的影响，其中有两个重复（块），间隔两个月，说明了这种方法。在涉及实验室动物的研究中，这些设计普遍未能得到更广泛的应用，这可能导致了动物、资金和科学资源的大量浪费，并减缓了人类和动物疾病新疗法的发展。
Randomized block experimental designs have been widely used in agricultural and industrial research for many decades. Usually they are more powerful, have higher external validity, are less subject to bias, and produce more reproducible results than the completely randomized designs typically used in research involving laboratory animals. Reproducibility can be further increased by using time as a blocking factor. These benefits can be achieved at no extra cost. A small experiment investigating the effect of an antioxidant on the activity of a liver enzyme in four inbred mouse strains, which had two replications ( blocks) separated by a period of two months, illustrates this approach. The widespread failure to use these designs more widely in research involving laboratory animals has probably led to a substantial waste of animals, money, and scientific resources and slowed down the development of new treatments for human and animal diseases.