In vitro bioassays for detecting dioxin-like activity--application potentials and limits of detection, a review.
Use of in vitro assays as screening tool to characterize contamination of a variety of environmental matrices has become an increasingly popular and powerful toolbox in the field of environmental toxicology. While bioassays cannot entirely substitute analytical methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), the increasing improvement of cell lines and standardization of bioassay procedures enhance their utility as bioanalytical pre-screening tests prior to more targeted chemical analytical investigations. Dioxin-receptor-based assays provide a holistic characterization of exposure to dioxin-like compounds (DLCs) by integrating their overall toxic potential, including potentials of unknown DLCs not detectable via e.g. GC-MS. Hence, they provide important additional information with respect to environmental risk assessment of DLCs. This review summarizes different in vitro bioassay applications for detection of DLCs and considers the comparability of bioassay and chemical analytically derived toxicity equivalents (TEQs) of different approaches and various matrices. These range from complex samples such as sediments through single reference to compound mixtures. A summary of bioassay derived detection limits (LODs) showed a number of current bioassays to be equally sensitive as chemical methodologies, but moreover revealed that most of the bioanalytical studies conducted to date did not report their LODs, which represents a limitation with regard to low potency samples.
Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Analysis, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Kathrin
K
Eichbaum
Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Analysis, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany.
Markus
M
Brinkmann
Federal Institute of Hydrology (BFG), Department G3: Biochemistry, Ecotoxicology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany.
Sebastian
S
Buchinger
Federal Institute of Hydrology (BFG), Department G3: Biochemistry, Ecotoxicology, Am Mainzer Tor 1, 56068 Koblenz, Germany.
Georg
G
Reifferscheid
School of the Environment & Sustainability and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, SK S7N 5B3 Saskatoon, Canada.
Markus
M
Hecker
School of the Environment & Sustainability and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, SK S7N 5B3 Saskatoon, Canada; Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, 44 Campus Drive, SK S7N 5B3 Saskatoon, Canada; Department of Zoology and Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA; Department of Biology and Chemistry, State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR, China; School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
John P
JP
Giesy
Man-Technology-Environment Research Centre, Deptartment of Natural Sciences, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden.
Magnus
M
Engwall
Man-Technology-Environment Research Centre, Deptartment of Natural Sciences, Örebro University, 70182 Örebro, Sweden.
Bert
B
van Bavel
Institute for Environmental Research, Department of Ecosystem Analysis, RWTH Aachen University, Worringerweg 1, 52074 Aachen, Germany; Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Environment of Education Ministry of China, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China; College of Resources and Environmental Science, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China; School of Environment, Nanjing University, China. Electronic address: Henner.hollert@bio5.rwth-aachen.de.
Henner
H
Hollert
D000818:Animals; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000378:metabolism*; D004147:Dioxins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D057230:Limit of Detection; D051381:Rats
D002273:Carcinogens; D004147:Dioxins
Dioxin; Effect directed analysis; Exposure characterization; LOD; TEQ-approach