Sensitive method for the assessment of toxicity of trace amounts of chemicals using primary cultured hepatocytes

摘要

Several methods using bacteria, animal cell lines, and living animals, have been used for the assessment of the toxic effects of environmental pollutants on human body. However, these conventional methods have several disadvantages in practicaluse. In the present study, we have modified the MTT assay, which was originally developed to measure the viability of lymphocytes, so as to adapt it for primary cultured hepatocytes. We showed that the combining use ol the modified MTT assay and primarycultured hepatocytes could detect the cytotoxicity of the water samples containing a trace of toxic compounds. This assay system was 10-100 times more sensitive than the method using a non-hepatic cell line. This result indicates that the cytotoxicityassay using primary cultured hepatocytes and the modified MTT assay is expected to be a promising alternative for the evaluation of the toxicity of environmental pollutants on human body.