The colony forming efficiency assay for toxicity testing of nanomaterials-Modifications for higher-throughput

Elise Rundén-Pran; Espen Mariussen; Naouale El Yamani; Elisabeth Elje; Eleonora Marta Longhin; Maria Dusinska

doi:10.3389/ftox.2022.983316

The colony forming efficiency assay for toxicity testing of nanomaterials-Modifications for higher-throughput

Front Toxicol. 2022 Sep 7:4:983316. doi: 10.3389/ftox.2022.983316. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Elise Rundén-Pran¹, Espen Mariussen^{1

2}, Naouale El Yamani¹, Elisabeth Elje^{1

3}, Eleonora Marta Longhin¹, Maria Dusinska¹

Affiliations

¹ Health Effects Laboratory, Department of Environmental Chemistry, NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway.
² Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Department for Environmental Chemistry, Department of Air Quality and Noise, Oslo, Norway.
³ University of Oslo, Faculty of Medicine, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Department of Molecular Medicine, Oslo, Norway.

Abstract

To cope with the high number of nanomaterials manufactured, it is essential to develop high-throughput methods for in vitro toxicity screening. At the same time, the issue with interference of the nanomaterial (NM) with the read-out or the reagent of the assay needs to be addressed to avoid biased results. Thus, validated label-free methods are urgently needed for hazard identification of NMs to avoid unintended adverse effects on human health. The colony forming efficiency (CFE) assay is a label- and interference-free method for quantification of cytotoxicity by cell survival and colony forming efficiency by CFE formation. The CFE has shown to be compatible with toxicity testing of NMs. Here we present an optimized protocol for a higher-throughput set up.

Keywords: 12-well format; CFE; cell viability; colony formation; cytotoxicity; hazard and risk assessment; nanomaterials.