Presently available short-term toxicological tests

4 Presently available short-term toxicological tests 

Several types of in-vitro tests are routinely applied to study the harmful effects at either cellular level (cytotoxicity tests) or on the genetic material 

Cell death is a very drastic endpoint usually preceded by various other deleterious effects in the cell. With certain types of short-term tests it is possible to detect some of these effects, and thus gain information of non-lethal toxicity, which, however, could be relevant for the safety aspects. These tests can be based on certain enzymatic activities or other specific targeted functions in the cell. Some examples are presented below. 

When hepatic cell lines that have retained their ability to respond to foreign compounds by the induction of specific drug metabolising enzymes (cytochrome P450 variants, such as CYPl Al) are used, this enzymatic activity can be measured and used as an indicator of toxicity (Sanderson et al., 1996 Koistinen et al., 1998). 

RNA-synthesis is a basic function of living cells, and its rate can be influenced by various factors. Measurement of the cellular RNA-synthesis rate after exposure to the test agent by following the incorporation of radio 

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