Cytotoxic Characteristics and Sensitivities of Vero Cells Exposed to Organic Chemicals Pollutant and the Feasibilities in Bio-Toxicity Test of Drinking Water Concerning

The characteristics of morphological change of Mammalian Vero cells exposed to typical chemical pollutant 2, 4, 6-trichlorophenol (TCP) were studied, and its sensitivity and correlation were compared to that of cells proliferation inhibition tested by methylthiazol-2-yl-2, 5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. The morphological change of Vero cell exposed to leachate from the Products Related to Drinking Water (PRDW) was also investigated, in order to test the reliability of this method to evaluate composite toxicity of trace chemicals in environment. The results showed that: 1) Less than 0.5 mg/l TCP already had some effects on cell morphology, and the proportion of morphology changed cells increased along with the elevation of TCP concentration. However, under the low TCP condition (less than 1.0 mg/1), the inhibition of cell proliferation tested by MTT Assay seemed to be irregular. 2) Exposed to the leachate of PRDW extracted at different temperature, the percentage of morphology changed cells increased with extracting temperature, but MTT assay failed to reflect the correlation between extracting temperature and proliferation inhibition of Vero cells. Therefore, the cell morphological changes should be a more sensitive and reliable method to indicate the composite bio-toxicity of trace chemicals than the proliferation inhibition, and its quantification should be studied further.