Preliminary studies on the validity of in vitro measurement of drug toxicity using HeLa cells. I. Comparative in vitro cytotoxicity of 27 drugs.

Combined drug toxicity to HeLa cells was studied in vitro with use of the microtitre MIT-24 test system. Whether drug toxicity to HeLa cells is representative of drug toxicity to other cultivated cells was investigated by a comparison of the MIT-24 toxicity of 27 drugs to HeLa cells with their toxicity to various permanent cell lines and more differentiated primary cell cultures as reported in the literature, together with original recordings of the MIT-24 toxicity of 9 of the drugs to human fetal kidney cells. A similarity of drug toxicity to all cell types was found. Thus the MIT-24 recordings may be representative of a basal drug cytotoxicity, probably corresponding to local drug irritation and to causal systemic drug toxicity.