Abstract
Sir: I thank you for giving me this opportunity to reply to Ms Lucy Best's Letter to the Editor, in which she questioned the welfare of rats used in our study. I would like to emphasize that my colleagues and I complied with all necessary legal and ethical obligations in this study.
According to Japanese law regarding animal welfare, the review board for animal welfare in my institute, which includes an outside veterinarian and related experts, approved the protocol of this study. All researchers completed the compulsory course on animal handling and acted in accordance with the legal requirements for animal experimentation. We tried to keep the number of animals used in the experiment to a minimum.
However, in order to properly study contracture, a correction device that may help to improve the quality of life of affected patients, the use of animal models is sometimes unavoidable. We stand by our method of using animal subjects with a uniform degree of contracture to quantitatively estimate the minimal effective torque required to correct joints with contracture. We believe the procedure to be valuable and necessary.
As for the novelty or significance of the present article, that decision is the purview of the Editorial Committee of the Journal which saw fit to accept our research for publication. We appreciate Ms Best's concerns and wish to convey our continued regard for animal welfare in our experimental procedures.