ABSTRACT
Outside the building where a recent stockholders meeting of the US Surgical Corporation was being conducted in New York City, animal rights activists from the Friends of Animals organization protested the use of surgical staples on dogs. The use of organ-specific cells to test for systemic toxicity may also be suitable as a screening system, since these cells can provide information on basal and specific cytotoxicity. Based on the observable trends and practical experience of many laboratories and regulatory agencies with in vitro cytotoxicity tests, it is conceivable that toxicity testing in the foreseeable future will be regularly performed with cell cultures and in test tubes. Certain methods assigned to the battery could be used for systematic mapping of the different effects attributed to basal cytotoxicity. In addition, the mechanisms underlying basal cytotoxic phenomena may explain how these effects are influenced by the physicochemical properties of the molecules.
