Caenorhabditis elegans as an alternative animal species

Caenorhabditis elegans has proven useful in toxicity testing of known toxic ants, but its potential for assessing the toxicity of new pharmaceuticals i s relatively unexplored. In this study the procedures used in aquatic testi ng of toxicants were modified to permit testing of small amounts (<40 mg) o f gadolinium-based magnetic resonance imaging ( MRI) compounds. Five blinde d compounds were tested. The toxicity of these compounds determined using C . elegans was compared to existing mammalian test system data ( minimum let hal dose [MLD] values for mice). Four of five compounds tested had the same relative sensitivity with C. elegans as with the mouse test system. Testin g with C. elegans is efficient and could markedly reduce the cost of screen ing potentially useful compounds.