FISH PRIMARY HEPATOCYTE CULTURE - AN IMPORTANT MODEL FOR XENOBIOTIC METABOLISM AND TOXICITY STUDIES

The aquatic environment is affected by numerous chemical contaminants. There is an increasing need to identify these chemicals and evaluate their potential toxicity towards aquatic life. In this review, we pres ent the technique of primary cell culture of fish hepatocytes as one a djunct model for the ecotoxicological evaluation of the potential haza rds of xenobiotics in the aquatic environment. The isolation of hepato cytes involves the perfusion of the liver with a Ca2+-free balanced sa line solution followed by a second perfusion with the digesting enzyme collagenase. Hepatocytes or parenchymal cells can be separated from c ell debris and from non-parenchymal cells by low-speed centrifugation. Fish hepatocytes have been shown to retain many important functions i n primary cell culture which is a prerequisite for obtaining results r elevant to the in-vivo situation. Thus, fish primary hepatocytes have been used to study the metabolism of xenobotics, the formation of toxi c products, chemical-induced DNA damage, the induction of enzymes, per oxisome proliferation, and effects on hormone-signalling systems, etc. From the results, the mechanisms involved in chemical-induced toxicit y can be determined in more detail than would be possible in in-vivo s tudies.