Toxicity studies

Reasearch Topics > Toxicity studies

Pollutant effects are usually expressed first at the molecular or cellular level and can be propagated upward trough increasing levels of biological complexity. Organism and lower levels responses to pollutants are defined as biomarkers. Biological responses at higher organizational levels – population, community and ecosystem - are considered as bioindicators. Physiological, histological, behavioral, reproductive responses can serve as an intermediate or pivotal response point by which the mechanistic basis of effects at lower levels can be causally linked to ecologically relevant measures at the population and community levels.

In our approach, histological parameters are coupled with biochemical and cellular biomarkers, as well as with physiological parameters in isopods to study toxicity of single metals and their mixtures.

link to lower level		← →	link to higher level
biochemical measures /whole organism	cytotoxicity /hepatopancreas	histopathology /hepatopancreas	energy reserves / whole organism
biomarkers of exposure	biomarker of effect	biomarker of effect	biomarker of effect and/or exposure
AChE	lysosomal membrane stability	epithelial thickness	biochemical analyses of lipids
GST		shape of apical epithelial surface	biochemical analyses of glycogen
antioxidant enzymes (SOD, GRx, GPx)		distribution of lipids	biochemical analyses of proteins
↓	↓	↓	↓
detection of exposure	cytotoxicity	organism level toxicity	potential link to higher levels
	data for toxicity classification
data for early warning
data for risk assessment