Developing a list of reference chemicals for testing alternatives to whole fish toxicity tests

• Published in: Aquatic toxicology Vol. 90; no. 2; pp. 128 - 137
• Main Authors: Schirmer, Kristin, Tanneberger, Katrin, Kramer, Nynke I., Völker, Doris, Scholz, Stefan, Hafner, Christoph, Lee, Lucy E.J., Bols, Niels C., Hermens, Joop L.M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 11.11.2008; Amsterdam; New York: Elsevier Science; Elsevier
• Subjects: Acute fish lethality test; Agnatha. Pisces; Alternatives to animal testing; Animal Testing Alternatives; animal use alternatives; Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Animals; Applied ecology; Biological and medical sciences; Cell Line; Cell lines; Chemical database; Danio rerio; Databases, Factual; ecotoxicology; Ecotoxicology - methods; Ecotoxicology, biological effects of pollution; fish; Fish embryo; Freshwater; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects; Inhibitory Concentration 50; lethal concentration 50; Lethal Dose 50; minnows; Organic Chemicals; organic compounds; Pimephales promelas; reference standards; Reference Values; toxicity testing; United States; United States Environmental Protection Agency; Vertebrates: general zoology, morphology, phylogeny, systematics, cytogenetics, geographical distribution; United States; USA; IC 50; Acute fish lethality test; SDS; log HLC; DIN; LC 50; Chemical database; NPN; Alternatives to animal testing; REACh; log P; OECD; FET; QSAR; UBA; MEIC; U.S. EPA; Cell lines; Fish embryo; MOA; PN; Embryo; Ecotoxicology; Toxicity; Acute; Toxicity test; Aquatic environment; Vertebrata; Cell line; Pisces; Database; List
• ISSN: 0166-445X; 1879-1514
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aquatox.2008.08.005

This paper details the derivation of a list of 60 reference chemicals for the development of alternatives to animal testing in ecotoxicology with a particular focus on fish. The chemicals were selected as a prerequisite to gather mechanistic information on the performance of alternative testing systems, namely vertebrate cell lines and fish embryos, in comparison to the fish acute lethality test. To avoid the need for additional experiments with fish, the U.S. EPA fathead minnow database was consulted as reference for whole organism responses. This database was compared to the Halle Registry of Cytotoxicity and a collation of data by the German EPA (UBA) on acute toxicity data derived from zebrafish embryos. Chemicals that were present in the fathead minnow database and in at least one of the other two databases were subject to selection. Criteria included the coverage of a wide range of toxicity and physico-chemical parameters as well as the determination of outliers of the in vivo/ in vitro correlations. While the reference list of chemicals now guides our research for improving cell line and fish embryo assays to make them widely applicable, the list could be of benefit to search for alternatives in ecotoxicology in general. One example would be the use of this list to validate structure–activity prediction models, which in turn would benefit from a continuous extension of this list with regard to physico-chemical and toxicological data.