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SUMMARY:Exploitation of Alternative\, Non-rodent Models to Assess the Toxi
 city of Nanomaterials. - Helinor Johnston\, Associate Professor\, Heriot W
 att University
DTSTART:20210916T150000Z
DTEND:20210916T160000Z
UID:TALK161971@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Kirsty Shepherd
DESCRIPTION:Nanomaterials (NMs) are defined as having at least one dimensi
 on that is 1-100 nm in diameter. At the nanoscale\, novel properties emerg
 e in materials\, which has led to an increase in the incorporation of NMs 
 in an array of consumer products. Accordingly\, NM exploitation has grown 
 enormously over recent years and the use of NMs now spans diverse sectors 
 (e.g. pharmaceuticals\, cosmetics\, textiles\, food\, electronics\, automo
 tive\, construction\, agriculture\, and pigments/inks). Despite the increa
 sed prevalence of NMs in the marketplace\, there are still uncertainties s
 urrounding their potential detrimental impact on human health. Toxicity te
 sting has traditionally relied on rodents\, however the use of alternative
  models can allow better alignment of nanotoxicology with the 3Rs principl
 es\, to reduce\, refine and replace animal testing. In addition the more w
 idespread adoption of alternative\, non-rodent models can allow a quicker\
 , more ethical and often cheaper assessment of NM toxicity . In vitro (cel
 l based) models of varied complexity and zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos a
 re being increasingly used to assess the toxicity of NMs\, and the benefit
 s and limitations of these models for assessing the response of different 
 systems will be discussed. Early life stages of zebrafish (<5 days post fe
 rtilisation) are non protected and thus there are less ethical implication
 s associated with their use. I will discuss how zebrafish can be used to i
 nvestigate inflammatory responses to NMs. Zebrafish embryo/larval transpar
 ency is particularly appealing when investigating inflammatory responses\,
  as it enables the direct visualisation of immune cell accumulation due to
  the availability of transgenic zebrafish strains which express fluorescen
 t proteins in specific immune cell types (e.g. macrophages and neutrophils
 ). The use of more physiologically relevant in vitro co-culture models is 
 increasing as they can allow responses following repeated exposures to be 
 assessed over a longer time frame than conventional approaches. Examples o
 f advanced in vitro models which represent the intestine\, lung and liver 
 will be discussed to demonstrate how they can be employed to assess NM tox
 icity. Finally a brief overview of a Framework that is being generated to 
 enable the grouping\, and read-across of NMs to support risk assessment an
 d innovation will be provided. The development of the Framework has requir
 ed the formulation of evidence based grouping hypotheses and tailored inte
 grated approaches to testing and assessment which guide what information n
 eeds to be gathered to making a grouping decision. 
LOCATION:Meeting ID: 876 8804 7643  Passcode: 632620
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