Toxicity monitored with a correlated set of cell-culture assays.

A set of assays for toxicity has been developed in which cell cultures serve as an alternative to toxicity testing in vivo. One test is the assessment of the highest concentration of toxicant which produces minimal morphological alterations in cell cultures, followed by the determination of the amount of neutral red dye uptake by the cells. A second test is based on 50% inhibition of uptake of [3H]uridine after incubation of the cultures with the toxicant. There is good agreement between these assays in the rank correlation of a broad spectrum of compounds tested, as well as with the data from Draize rabbit eye irritancy tests in vivo.