Tools in Ecotoxicology

Permanent fish cell cultures such as hepatoma cells (PLHC-1) and gonadal cells (RTG-2) have successfully been used for acute toxicity assessment of a variety of environmental chemicals such as organotins, substituted phenols and pharmaceuticals. Cytotoxicity significantly correlates with physico-chemical prop-erties such as lipophilicity of the compounds (log Dow). A signif-icant correlation of in vitro with in vivo acute toxicity in fish (organotins, substituted phenols) and zooplankton Daphnia magna (pharmaceuticals) was found. This indicates the useful-ness of fish cell lines for screening and toxicity assessment of chemicals within REACH. Furthermore, a transfection system based on PLHC-1 cells, was developed for the determination of estrogenicity of chemicals and environmental samples