Quantitative correspondence between the in vivo and in vitro activity of teratogenic agents.
We have tested 74 teratogenic and 28 nonteratogenic agents in a recently developed in vitro teratogen assay system. The assay identifies teratogens by their ability to inhibit attachment of ascites tumor cells to plastic surfaces coated with concanavalin A. There is a qualitative agreement between in vivo animal data and in vitro activity for 81 of the 102 agents (79%). Quantitative analysis shows a highly significant correlation coefficient of 0.69 between the inhibitory in vitro dose and the lowest reported teratogenic dose for 54 of the 60 inhibitory teratogens. The doses analyzed ranged over 5 orders of magnitude. We interpret these results to mean that attachment inhibition in concert with other, complementary, in vitro assay systems can become a useful method for the assessment of the teratogenic potential of environmental agents.
D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects*; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003208:Concanavalin A; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D051379:Mice; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D013723:Teratogens / Q000494:pharmacology
D013723:Teratogens; D003208:Concanavalin A