The investigation of toxic compounds which need a previous metabolic a
ctivation often gets advantage by the employment of cell suspensions,
in most of the cases rat hepatocytes. In particular, this model system
allows the characterization of lipid peroxidation kinetics, the evalu
ation of its pathogenetic role in the induction of cell death and the
analysis of the interaction among different prooxidant compounds in br
inging about both oxidative damage and cytolysis.