Studies on Mammalian Cell Culture Method for Toxicity (I)

Cytotoxicity of Plastic Materials

Abstract

We applied a mammalian cell culture method for the screening tests for toxicity. In this paper, toxicity of substances eluted from plastic, especially phthalic acid esters, was tested using colony formation of KB cell. The substances eluted from polystyrene, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyacrylic derivatives, polycarbonates and phenol-formaldehyde resins did not influence on plating efficiency of colony of KB cell. On the other hand, soft type polyvinyl chloride, urea-formaldehyde resin and melamine resin showed remarkable inhibitory effects on the plating efficiency of colony. Toxicity of urea-formaldehyde resin and melamine resin may be attributed to formaldehyde and that of soft type polyvinyl chloride to phthalic acid esters. The toxicity of phthalic acid esters decreased in the order of DOP>DEP>DMP.