The Future of the Teratogenicity Testing.

The purpose of this review is to examine the importance, possible advantages and disadvantages of teratogenicity tests, and their future. For this purpose, numerous sources have been scanned in the field of teratogenicity. Although there are many methods related to teratogenic studies and very important studies have been made in this field, there are still serious deficiencies. There are advantages and disadvantages of in vitro and in vivo classical tests that have been used so far. The current status of in vivo tests is a matter of debate, especially due to the use of experimental animals. However, in vitro tests that do not perform the distribution and metabolism of chemicals also raise doubts in determination of teratogenicity. Despite the modern approaches of molecular biology and genetics and the best diagnostic techniques, the real cause of more than half of congenital diseases is still not understood. In this sense, the importance and necessity of teratogenic tests are understood once again. It is necessary to develop faster, reliable, and inexpensive techniques to replace traditional in vivo tests. It is important to disseminate harmless and reliable imaging techniques such as micro-CT. The use of European Center for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) scientifically validated and approved in vitro tests such as embryonic stem cell test (EST), micro mass test (MM), and whole embryo culture (WEC) tests in routine screening can provide a solution in a shorter time than the classical tests. Improving these tests and developing new tests can help to solve the problem permanently.

In vitro screening of genotoxicity and mutagenicity of pyriproxyfen in human lymphocytes and Salmonella typhimurium TA98 and TA100 strains.

Pyriproxyfen (PPX) is a pesticide/larvicide used to increase productivity in agriculture against insects by inhibiting development of insects' larvae. In this study, cytotoxic, genotoxic, and mutagenic effects of PPX were investigated in human peripheral lymphocytes and Salmonella typhimurium strains by performing chromosomal aberration, micronucleus (MN) tests, and Ames test, respectively. For the chromosome aberration (CA) and MN methods, blood from four healthy donors (two men and two women, nonsmokers) were used. Two hundred microliters of blood was inoculated into PbMax medium and prepared according to International Guidelines. For the Ames test, S. typhimurium TA98 and TA100 strains were used to detect frameshift and base pair substitution mutagens, respectively. PPX induced both the CA percentage and MN frequency in human peripheral lymphocytes and exhibited cytotoxic effects. In addition, it showed a mutagenic effect at all doses in TA98 and TA100 strains in the presence of S9mix; however, no such effect was observed in the absence of S9mix. According to the obtained results, it can be said that PPX has genotoxic and mutagenic potentials.