Aquatic genotoxicity testing with rat hepatocytes in primary culture. I. SCE induction

Primary cultures of adult rat hepatocytes were tested for their suitability to assess the genotoxic potential of effluent water samples by means of sister chromatid exchange induction. The results obtained with a variety of industrial effluents indicate a high sensitivity of this system since significantly elevated levels of SCE could be demonstrated in the undiluted sample and dilutions down to concentrations of 0.01%. However, the results also showed that the sole examination of an undiluted sample can lead to misinterpretations due to the shape of the dose response curves; in the worst case no genotoxic effect will be found although the sample has both toxic and genotoxic activity. Therefore, to assess the potential genotoxicity, it will be necessary to determine SCE induction with several dilutions of the effluents under investigation.