539 © 2008, Japanese Society for Alternatives to Animal Experiments Does preclinical testing on insects help to predict human myelotoxic potentials?

No alternative model for human peripheral blood cells still has been found. With respect to our previous studies on insect immunotoxicological reactions we compared the morphology of human circulating blood cells and insect haemocytes using standard haematological methods. We documented that insect prohaemocytes, granulocytes and plasmatocytes have morphology which is similar to human mature lymphocytes, neutrophil granulocytes and monocytes. It offers to start studies carried on haemocytes to be evaluated as a prospective inexpensive model for toxicological praescreening