Reasearch Topics > Toxicity studies > Cytotoxicity

One subcellular component which has proved to be very sensitive to the presence of contaminants is the lysomal system. The evaluation of lysosomal injury has now become widely accepted as a sensitive index of cellular health, where the destabilization of the lysosomal membrane bears a quantitative relationship to the magnitude of the stress response (Lowe et al. 2000). In our work, cytochemical assay on cryostat sections is used for assessment of lysosomal membrane stability (UNEP 1999).