Current perspectives on the use of alternative species in human health and ecological hazard assessments.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Traditional animal toxicity tests can be time and resource intensive, thereby limiting the number of chemicals that can be comprehensively tested for potential hazards to humans and/or to the environment.

Objective

We compared several types of data to demonstrate how alternative models can be used to inform both human and ecological risk assessment.

Methods

We reviewed and compared data derived from high throughput in vitro assays to fish reproductive tests for seven chemicals. We investigated whether human-focused assays can be predictive of chemical hazards in the environment. We examined how conserved pathways enable the use of nonmammalian models, such as fathead minnow, zebrafish, and Xenopus laevis, to understand modes of action and to screen for chem

SUBMITTER: Perkins EJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3764090 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature