THE USE OF CULTURED SKELETAL-MUSCLE CELLS IN TESTING FOR ACUTE SYSTEMIC TOXICITY

A test system using primary cultured, spontaneously contracting, rat s keletal muscle cells has been developed to detect chemical interaction s with excitable membranes. Taking into account some basic toxicokinet ic differences between the in vivo and in vitro conditions, results ob tained with the first 30 MEIC reference chemicals were quantitatively compared with in vivo acute toxicity data. The results show that the m uscle cell test system is suitable for use in acute toxicity assessmen t and, for instance, for toxicity classification of chemicals.