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Comparative acute toxicity of the first 50 Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity chemicals to aquatic non-vertebrates

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Abstract

The acute toxicity data of the first 50 chemicals of the Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) programme is compared for three “cyst-based toxicity tests” (Artoxkit M with Artemia salina, Streptoxkit F with Streptocephalus proboscideus, and Rotoxkit F with Brachionus calyciflorus), and two other tests (the Daphnia magna and the Photobacterium phosphoreum Microtox™ tests) commonly used in ecotoxicology. The difference in sensitivity for the 50 chemicals was as high as 19 orders of magnitude (on a molecular weight basis) between the most and least sensitive species. Generally, a similar toxicity ranking of the 5 test species was found for most of the chemicals and the interspecies correlations were high. Results from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis indicated that the groupings are not related to a clear and defined chemical structure. However, the loading plot of the first two principal components may aid in selecting the minimum number and type of tests that have to be included in a battery which encompasses a broad spectrum of toxicity levels. Consequently, this study supports the use of a selected battery of tests to evaluate ecotoxicity and suggests its possible importance for screening of biologically-active compounds from natural sources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Biological Research in Aquatic Pollution, University of Ghent, 22 J. Plateaustraat, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    M. C. Calleja & G. Persoone

  2. Research Group for Chemometrics, Institute of Chemistry, University of Ume», S-901 87, Umeå, Sweden

    P. Geladi

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  1. M. C. Calleja
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  2. G. Persoone
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  3. P. Geladi
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Calleja, M.C., Persoone, G. & Geladi, P. Comparative acute toxicity of the first 50 Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity chemicals to aquatic non-vertebrates. Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 26, 69–78 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00212796

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