In vitro toxicological methods for environmental health testing

Increasing public interest in environmental health issues has created a demand for alternatives to using animals for assessing the toxic effects of chemical mixtures on humans. This review focuses on applications of in vitro toxicological screening methods developed for human health biomonitoring using cultured clonal cell lines, which have the which have the following advantages: genetic variation between samples and experiments is minimal; the cultivation of cell lines is rapid and consistent conditions for culture are easily maintained; most of the phenotypic variation that is encountered with use of cell donors is eliminated; and radiolabeled precursors can be used for labeling and quantifying protein and DNA. We describe the current state of development of in vitro toxicity testing methods, present detailed procedures for the test methods optimized in our laboratory, and compare these techniques with other approaches. Toxicity testing using cell lines provides a mechanism to quantify the risks associated with environmental exposure to chemical mixtures.