Toxicity, mechanisms intracellular

The in vitro screening methods have several advantages over in vivo testing such as the undisputable ethical benefits, a lower cost, and a shorter time to perform the study. Moreover, in vitro methods offer the possibility to identify and investigate specific toxicity mechanisms (such as oxidative stress, pathways involved in NM intracellular uptake, genotoxicity) in a relatively simple system, without the complexity and interferences of several factors present in vivo in a whole organism. 

Interference with the cell machinery and resulting toxicity mechanisms (e.g., interaction with enzymes, transcription factors, nucleic acids, production of intracellular ROS)... 

Scheme 57. Intracellular toxic mechanism proposed for orellanine. (From Schumacher andH0Uand(2 5).]...

Nitric oxide donors appear to reduce the viability of several tumour Unes (Petit et al. 1996) perhaps by deleting intracellular stores of glutathione making the cell susceptible to other toxic mechanisms (Wink et al. 1994). 

Tiffany-Castiglinoi E Texas A M University, College Station, TX The intracellular mechanisms of lead toxicity U. S. Department of Agriculture... 

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