Method and cell line for testing cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of a chemical

摘要

A method of testing the cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of a chemical includes the steps of exposing test cells to the chemical in vitro, intracellularly metabolizing the chemical into a mutagenic or cytotoxic metabolite and then detecting gene/protein/cell damage in the test cells as an indication of the mutagenicity/cytotoxicity of the chemical. A cell line is provided for testing cytotoxicity and mutagenicity of the chemicals, the cell line consisting essentially of fibroblasts normally having no detectable cytochrome P450 mixed function oxidase enzyme activity. The fibroblasts are transformed with chimeric gene constructs containing cytochrome P450 coding sequences and have intracellular cytochrome P450 oxidative metabolizing activity.