Toxicity of Sixteen Metallic Compounds in Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells: A Comparison with Mice and Drosophila

摘要

The toxicity of 16 metal salts to Chinese hamster ovary cells has been determined by measuring the cloning efficiency of these cells after exposure to the metals. Although CHO cells differ by a factor of 10 exp 5 to 10 exp 6 in their toxic response to these metals, each metal causes a sigmoid-shaped survival curve. While Cd(II) is the most toxic compound, Mg(II) exhibits the least toxicity based on either CE sub 50 or D sub 0 . On the basis of CE sub 50 , the toxicity ranking is Ag > Tl for monovalent metals, Cd > Zn > Hg > Co > Cu > Mn > Ni > Be > Pd > Sr > Mg for divalent metals, and In > Rh > Y for trivalent metals. A similar ranking is found for D sub 0 . For the 11 divalent metals, correlation between CE sub 50 and D sub 0 in the CHO cell assay and the Pearson-Mawby softness parameter for metals (sigma/sub p/) is reasonably strong. There exists a strong correlation between the toxic response in the CHO cell assay and in mice, and a moderately strong correlation between CHO cells and Drosophila. It appears that the CHO cell cloning assay may be useful in preliminary screening of compounds as an indicator of their predicted toxicity in higher organisms. (ERA citation 08:047470)