DETECTION OF HEAVY METAL TOXICITY BY TETRAHYMENA PYRIFORMIS CULTURE METHOD
1973 Volume 11 Issue 1-2 Pages 27-31
Details
1973 Volume 11 Issue 1-2 Pages 27-31
A rapid, inexpensive and simple method using Tetrahymena pyriformis has been established for the biological study on heavy metal toxicity. The growth of this organism was highly sensitive to various kinds of heavy metals and was affected at the concentration of 10-6 M of the metals. The strength of the toxicity was clearly expressed by the protein concentration of the cultured Tetrahymena pyriformis in medium containing the varying concentration of the metal.
Cadmium and mercury inhibited most remarkably the growth of Tetrahymena pyriformis and the complete inhibition was observed at the concentration of 4×10-6 M, while selenium, manganese, zinc and copper showed less toxic effects, and magnesium and calcium had no notable effect on the organism.
Zinc administered simultaneously with cadmium reversed the inhibitory effect of cadmium. On the other hand, mercury and cadmium additively inhibited the growth of the organism. It should be noted that the newly established method detects not only toxicity of heavy metals, but also the mutual effect of two kinds of metal com-pounds on organisms.
