• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.98-105
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• 1997

The study on the cytotoxicity of heavy metals was carried out to evaluate the cytotoxic effect of those on mouse L929 fibroblast cell in 96-well microtiter plates. The cytotoxicity was assayed by the neutral red, tetrazolium MTT, total protein, micronuclei test. The cytotoxicity of the heavy metals by neutral red and tetrazolium MTT was showed in order, cadmium > zinc > nickel for the cationic metals tested. The effect of metal-metal interaction on the cytotoxicity showed a marked reduction of cadmium toxicity by zinc, to a lesser degree, by nickel. The amount of total protein in treated group added heavy metals was less than that of the control and treated cadmium alone was less than those of combination with nickel or zinc. At midpoint cytotoxicity values of heavy metals, the frequency of micronuclei on the cell treated heavy metals was more than that of control and treated cadmium alone was more than those of combination with nickel or zinc. From those results, it could be suggested that the heavy metals decreased the viability of mouse fibroblast L929 cells in a concentration-dependent manner and have cytogenic toxic effects, but mixed group decreased the cytotoxic and cytogenic toxicity on L929 cells.