Cell-vessel wall interactions (adhesion, emigration) and cell-cell cohesion (aggregation) have been assessed primarily in animal experiments. The cell function analyser (CFA) is an in vitro vascular model, in which the three components of Virchow's triad are present in a highly standardised and variable form. The CFA permits visual and quantitative analysis of cellular adhesion, emigration and aggregation under physiologically relevant flow conditions (i.e. to the arteries and to the microcirculation). Although the method does not entail the use of a living animal or of animal tissue, as is true for animal experiments, with the CFA specimen fixation and histomorphological analysis after the experiment is possible. The efficacy of the method for platelet function testing has been verified by numerous clinical studies. The wide variability of test parameters make CFA suitable for in vitro analysis of other cell-vessel-wall-mediated processes, such as inflammation, wound healing and tumour metastasis. We present: 1) a description of the CFA method and underlying hemodynamic principles, 2) a review of clinical and experimental results with platelets and, 3) the first results of convective flow-mediated leukocyte-endothelial interactions. The CFA provides an in vitro alternative to animal experiments, can be classified as a replacement method and possesses an analysis spectrum that will greatly reduce the overall need for the previous.

In February of the year 2000 ZEBET (German Centre for the Documentation and Validation of Alternative Methods) at the Federal Institute for Consumer Health Protection and Veterinary Medicine (BgVV) put the ZEBET-database on alternative methods to animal experiments on the Internet in English via DIMDI, the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (http://gripsdb.dimdi.de/engl/guieng.html). The access is free, moreover DIMDI´s complete service is available to visitors of the ZEBET-database. The ZEBET-database contains documents on alternatives to testing in animals, which have been carefully evaluated by ZEBET's staff according to the "3R"s-concept established by Russel and Burch in 1959. Therefore, methods documented in the ZEBET-database must meet at least one of the following criteria: "replacement" of an animal experiment by a non-animal method, "reduction" of the number of animals used, "refinement" of an experiment by minimising pain and suffering of animals. In addition, the ZEBET-database provides information on the current stage of development and validation of a method and on the acceptance for either scientific or regulatory purposes. Each document is characterised by the following criteria: the title of a method, keywords, assessment, summary and bibliographic references. To search DIMDI´s-database and host-system the grips software has to be used. Examples are given for searching in the ZEBET-database. Currently 125 alternative methods are meeting the criteria of the ZEBET-database. 50 of them are available online on the internet via DIMDI, the remaining 75 documents will be available by the end of the year 2000. International fellow organisations, e.g. FRAME (Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments) in the UK and CAAT (Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing) in the USA, have established links on their web sites to provide visitors free access to the ZEBET-database.

Cell cultures are innovative tools for e.g. biocompatibility testing of biomaterials in vitro. In our studies we used fibroblast, endothelial cell and chondrocyte cultures of human origin and of the test animal species most common for this purpose in vivo. Verification of the identity of these cells is obligatory for reproducibility of the tests and valid interpretation of the results. Cultured cells have to be checked for identity, contaminations of various origins and also for genomic mutations occuring during prolonged cultivation in vitro or due to exposition to biomaterials. Furthermore, the risk of genetic cross-contamination with other cells increases with the number of cell cultures passaged parallel in the same laboratory. Therefore, we generated reference fingerprints of the cultures in varying passages for comparative monitoring of cells purposed for in vitro tests.
Minisatelite DNA polymorhism resulting in reproducible individual DNA fingerprints is very discriminatory and can be used for cell culture monitoring. The patterns are stable over several passages, although sudden changes did happen in two cases, i.e. loss/gain of bands or changes in band-intensity, indicating massive genomic mutations of the cultures in vitro. Influences of biomaterials on the prints could not be detected.
Several tasks can be followed at the same time: detection of contaminant cells, identification of these cells of primary culture origin used for in vitro testing and finally, monitoring for eventual genomic mutations due to prolonged cultivation or contact to biomaterials. Inconclusive results in just one of these aspects should lead to the disqualification of the monitored cultures from usage in vitro.

NEWS
EU: Arzneibuchprüfungen für Impfstoffe: wesentliche Änderungen zu erwarten
NL: Running 3R projects
D: Mehr Schutz für Tiere, Sport und Kultur in Baden-Württemberg
D: SATIS im Bundesverband der Tierversuchsgegner integriert
CH: Der Tierschutz hat wieder eine Lobby: Parlamentarische Gruppe für Tierschutz gegründet
S: In memoriam Björn Ekwall, dem Begründer der Zytotoxikologie
USA: Auf Expertensuche für in vitro Toxikologie
USA: HSUS fordert Verzicht auf qualvolle Tierversuche bis 2020
USA: "Animal Law" als neue Disziplin an Universitäten
ALTEX in Medline
D: Felix-Wankel-Tierschutz-Forschungspreis 2001

CONFERENCE REPORT
London: Consciousness, Cognition and Animal Welfare

BOOK REVIEWS
BVET: Forschung zum Wohl von Tier und Mensch (Mehrjahresbericht 1996-1999)
Tanja Gehrig: Struktur und Instrumente des Tierschutzrechts
Franz Kromka: Mensch und Tier

COMMENTS
Susi Goll: Die veröffentlichte Geheimniskrämerei
Angelo Vedani: Transgene Kunst
Roman Kolar: Ausschuss für Tiergesundheit und Tierschutz der Europäischen Kommission: Kein Interesse an deutschen Experten?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS

CALENDAR