Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
9038910 | Toxicology in Vitro | 2005 | 12 Pages |
Abstract
As fish cell lines and ciliates are potential alternatives to whole animals in testing environmental samples for toxicity, two cell lines from rainbow trout, RTgill-W1 and RTL-W1, and the ciliate, Tetrahymena thermophila, were compared for their sensitivity to the toxicity of five metals that are commonly found in mining effluents: copper, cadmium, zinc, nickel, and iron. Adding copper to growth medium for either cell system failed to elicit toxicity. Therefore, metal exposures were done in simple buffers, which allowed all metals to exert toxicity, except for nickel on fish cells. Cell viability was measured successfully with alamar Blue (AB) for metabolic activity and 5â²-carboxyfluoroscein diacetate acetoxymethyl ester (CFDA-AM) for membrane integrity, whereas neutral red uptake, which was quantified fluorometrically, gave confounding results with copper. Cadmium was the most toxic metal to Tetrahymena and killed the ciliate at approximately a 10-fold lower concentration than needed to kill fish cells. Fish cells were more sensitive than Tetrahymena to the cytotoxic action of zinc. Copper and iron were cytotoxic to fish cells and Tetrahymena at similar concentrations. Therefore, the relative sensitivity of fish cells and Tetrahymena to the cytotoxicity of metals depended on the metal, being similar for some but very different for others.
Keywords
Related Topics
Life Sciences
Environmental Science
Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Authors
Vivian R. Dayeh, Denis H. Lynn, Niels C. Bols,