Permanent fish cell cultures as important tools in ecotoxicology.

Permanent flsh cell cultures such as hepatoma cells (PLHC-1) and gonadal cells (RTG-2) have successfully been used for acute toxicity assessment of a variety of environmental chemicals such as organotins, substituted phenols and pharmaceuticals. Cytotoxicity significantly correlates with physico-chemical properties such as lipophilicity of the compounds (log Dow). A significant correlation of in vitro with in vivo acute toxicity in fish (organotins, substituted phenols) and zooplankton Daphnia magna (pharmaceuticals) was found. This indicates the usefulness of fish cell lines for screening and toxicity assessment of chemicals within REACH. Furthermore, a transfection system based on PLHC-1 cells, was developed for the determination of estrogenicity of chemicals and environmental samples.