Anders
Goksøyr
Department
of Molecular Biology, University of Bergen
Biosense
Laboratories AS, Bergen, Norway
Although
lethal toxicity tests has been proclaimed politically unwanted for more than a
decade, they are still in use, e.g. in chemical testing programmes for
providing wildlife effects, and a large number of fish are used annually for
this type of testing. Lethal tests provide limited information about the full
range of toxic effects that a chemical compound may have, including
reproductive effects and endocrine disruption, long-term effects,
carcinogenicity and immunotoxic effects. To obtain this kind of information,
sublethal studies where other biological endpoints (biomarkers) are
investigated, are necessary. Toxicogenomics and toxicoproteomics are emerging
as powerful strategies to identify novel biomarkers and mechanisms for
sublethal effects. A key goal in the work to develop alternative techniques for
lethal toxicity testing is the development of non-disruptive/non-invasive
biomarker tests. In the EU FP5 project EASYRING (Environmental Agent
Susceptibility Assessment Utilising Exisiting and Novel Biomarkers as Rapid
Non-Invasive Testing Methods), we have been working to identify novel biomarkers
using proteomics techniques, and to develop non-invasive methods for endocrine
disruptor testing based on fish mucus. A simple dipstick (LFIA) method for
detecting Vitellogenin in carp has been developed.
In many
cases, in vitro studies can be used as a replacement for in vivo studies for
assessing sublethal effects and measuring biomarkers responses. However, this
technique should be used with care, as several toxic responses require a
complex interplay of multiple cell and organ types, and especially long-term
and multi-generation effects will not be adequately revealed.
Work
supported by grants from EU FP5 (EASYRING), the Norwegian Research Council, and
Total.