Prediction of in vivo developmental toxicity by combination of Hand1-Luc embryonic stem cell test and metabolic stability test with clarification of metabolically inapplicable candidates

Toxicol Lett. 2016 Sep 30:259:44-51. doi: 10.1016/j.toxlet.2016.07.022. Epub 2016 Jul 18.

Abstract

Hand1-Luc Embryonic Stem Cell Test (Hand1-Luc EST) is a promising alternative method for evaluation of developmental toxicity. However, the problems of predictivity have remained due to appropriateness of the solubility, metabolic system, and prediction model. Therefore, we assessed the usefulness of rat liver S9 metabolic stability test using LC-MS/MS to develop new prediction model. A total of 71 chemicals were analyzed by measuring cytotoxicity and differentiation toxicity, and highly reproducible (CV=20%) results were obtained. The first prediction model was developed by discriminant analysis performed on a full dataset using Hand1-Luc EST, and 66.2% of the chemicals were correctly classified by the cross-validated classification. A second model was developed with additional descriptors obtained from the metabolic stability test to calculate hepatic availability, and an accuracy of 83.3% was obtained with applicability domain of 50.7% (=36/71) after exclusion of 22 metabolically inapplicable candidates, which potentially have a metabolic activation property. A step-wise prediction scheme with combination of Hand1-Luc EST and metabolic stability test was therefore proposed. The current results provide a promising in vitro test method for accurately predicting in vivo developmental toxicity.

Keywords: Cytotoxicity; In-vitro toxicity; Metabolism; Reproductive toxicity.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
  • Cell Culture Techniques
  • Cell Differentiation
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Discriminant Analysis
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / cytology
  • Embryonic Stem Cells / drug effects
  • Gene Expression Regulation
  • Hazardous Substances / toxicity*
  • Liver / metabolism
  • Luciferases / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Toxicity Tests / methods*

Substances

  • Basic Helix-Loop-Helix Transcription Factors
  • Hand1 protein, mouse
  • Hazardous Substances
  • Luciferases