The toxicity of chlorophenols in V79 Chinese hamster cells

The toxicity of nine chlorophenols to V79 Chinese hamster cells was determined in a survival assay which gives a direct measure of reproductive cell death by measuring single-cell cloning efficiency. Quantitative analyses of the structure-activity relationships showed that the toxicity was linearly related not only to hydrophobicity, as suggested by previous mammalian-cell studies, but also to electronic (electron-withdrawing) substituent effects. The extent electronic factors were related to the toxicity was assessed apart from their influence on partition and transport. The results suggest a relationship between the toxicity and the well-known ability of chlorophenols to induce proton permeability in membranes.