Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2017

Abstract

Although planarians are established model organisms in developmental biology and regeneration studies, in the last forty years or so, they have caught the attention of pharmacologists, especially to study the pharmacology of drugs of abuse. This review covers the following topics: some fundamentals of the history of animal models and planarians in biomedical research; an abbreviated story of systematic pharmacology research using planarians as a model organism; an example of how planarians are contributing to the search for compounds against acute cocaine toxicity; an analysis of the number of papers on planarians and pharmacological topics from 1900- 2016; some perspectives on pharmacology in developmental and regeneration studies, arguing in favor of the planarian model as a leading subject for this interdisciplinary area of research, and finally some concluding thoughts.

Publication Title

International Journal of Developmental Biology

ISSN

0214-6282

Publisher

University of the Basque Country Press

Volume

61

Issue

8-9

First Page

519

Last Page

529

DOI

10.1387/ijdb.160328op

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