Fish cell bioassays

Inclusion of a test representative of the fish level of organization in future PEEP bioassay batteries is nevertheless highly advisable owing to the specific adverse effects that liquid wastes can manifest on this trophic level. To offset the constraints mentioned above, appropriate surrogates can now be found with tests conducted with fish cells. Indeed, fish cell bioassays such as those reported in this book (see Chapters 14 and 15, volume 1 of this book) offer reliable and relevant alternatives to whole organism testing that alleviate sample volume and budgetary considerations. 

Bioassays appeared to fit the bill to perform this service to monitor chemical contamination. They have been around for a while. Until relatively recently, however, they remained in the realm of the laboratory. Only over the last two decades have they found a niche in testing for toxic chemicals in water and sediment, but not yet specifically as a tool for routine water quality monitoring. As Small-scale Freshwater Toxicity Investigations, Volumes 1 and 2 amply demonstrates, the science has now come of age. Assays based on bacteria, microscopic or multi-cellular algae, protozoa, invertebrates and vertebrates (freshwater fish cell cultures) are discussed in... 

Fish cell line bioassays have been developed to detect at least five classes of ecotoxicants and these bioassays and some examples of their applications are briefly reviewed. Some of the additional scientific issues with cell bioassays are how to genetically engineer cells to increase the specificity and sensitivity of the cell lines and how the sample can be prepared for effective presentation to the cells. 

A wide range of environmental samples have been evaluated for dioxin-like compounds with piscine cell line bioassays (Table 5). In nearly all studies some samples have been found to be positive. These results have been converted to bioassay-derived TCDD equivalent concentrations220, and different methods for doing this from the dose-response curves have been developed38 208. When the same samples have been applied to bioassays with mammalian and fish cell lines, the results have been broadly similar104 219 220. However, a few individual samples have sometimes been observed to differ33 220. In most studies, chemical analysis of the... 

Huuskonen, S.E., Ristola, T.E., Tuvikene, A., Hahn, M.E., Kukkonen, J.V.K. and Lindstrom-Seppa, P. (1998) Comparison of two bioassays, a fish liver cell line (PLHC-1) and a midge (Chironomus riparius), in monitoring freshwater sediments, Aquatic Toxicology 44 (1-2), 47-67. 

Bioassays using induction of the enzymes ethoxyresorufin o-deethylase (EROD) and/or arylhydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) in rat hepatoma H-4-IIE cells (Zacharewski et al. 1989) and modified mouse liver cells (Schuman and Hunter 1988) have been developed and tested on water, soil, and fish samples. The... 

The question is how well cell based in vitro test performs in comparison to the in vivo fish LC-50 test. Two aspects are important, the relative potency and the sensitivity. In this respect should the in vitro test be able to generate comparable results on the relative potency of toxicants, and at effect concentrations similar to those in fish in vivo bioassays. In addition, in vitro tests should not indicate false positive or false negative results (Segner 2004). A good and generally strong correlation has been established between in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo LC-50 in fish (Table 7.3) (Castano et al. 1996, Castano et al. 2003) and it can be concluded that as far as relative potency is concerned, the in vitro tests perform well as the in vivo LC-50 test. 

Jones, R.W. and M.N. Huffman. Fish embryos as bioassay material in testing chemicals for effects on cell division and differentiation. Trans. Am. Microsc. Soc. 76 177-183, 1957. 

---