IN-VITRO CYTOTOXICITY TESTING OF METAL-ALLOYS USED IN MEDICINE - COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Metal alloys are used in medicine mainly for implantation in different branches of surgery and as indispensable materials in stomatology. Th e toxicity testing of these materials incurs even more technical probl ems than the toxicity testing of new drugs. In principle there are two approaches-direct contact of a tested material with cells, or toxicit y testing of an eluate prepared from tested material. We have tested m ore than 20 different metal alloys, based either on titanium, gold or stainless-steel. We used three different in vitro methods: the dynamic assessment of contact cytotoxicity-cell monolayer is in direct contac t with tested material (Cervinka and Puza, 1990); cell proliferation a ssessment-effect of an eluate on cell proliferation is measured (Cervi nka and Puza, 1990); agar overlayer with neutral red uptake-both effec t of eluate and direct contact with tested material with agar overlaye r could be measured. Based on our results we recommended to use all th ree approaches simultaneously in a battery of in vitro tests.