Acute Toxicity Test with Daphnia magna: An Alternative to Mammals in the Prescreening of Chemical Toxicity?

Abstract

In this study, the association between the acute toxicity of 15 compounds to Daphnia magna, expressed as 24- and 48-h LC(50) values, and the corresponding oral LD(50) values for the rat was tested. Since there was evidence of a strong relationship between the two species, the sample was extended to 54 cases by including the values for acute toxicity to D. magna and rat of more chemicals published by other authors. Thus, a total of 54 data points were further used to ascertain the relationship between the acute toxicity of chemical compounds to D. magna and that to the rat. To summarize its validity, the D. magna test is more specific than sensitive as an indicator of toxicity to the rat. When it is used with a chemical that has a high probability of being very toxic to D. magna (LC(50)< 0.22 mg/L), the test provides considerable information if it is positive, virtually giving evidence of toxicity to the rat (with a probability of 0.83). On the other hand, a negative test (D. magna LC(50)>0.22 mg/L) has a probability of correctly assigning nontoxicity to the rat equal to 0.74. This study and results published by other authors provide good evidence of the applicability of using invertebrate tests as prescreening methods, thus considerably reducing the number of mammals required in toxicity testing.

Differences in the behavior characteristics between Daphnia magna and Japanese madaka in an on-line biomonitoring system

“…Controlled flow rate of each test channel was about 2 liters per hour, which was proved to have no effect on the motility of test organisms (Guilhermino et al, 2000). The water temperature was maintained at (20 ± 2)°C with 16 hr:8 hr (light:dark) photoperiod.…”

Well water contaminated by acidic mine water from the Dabaoshan Mine, South China: Chemistry and toxicity

“…For the water collected from Well D, when it is diluted with aerated tap water with a dilution factor of 31.2, the MP of the tested animals was 86%, 98%, 98% and 98% at 24 h, 48 h, 72 h and 96 h, respectively. Only the undiluted water from Well E showed certain toxicity to the test organism after 96 h, while there was no acute toxicity that was observed even for the undiluted water from Well F. Guilhermino et al (2000) suggested that acute toxicity test with Daphnia can be used as an alternative to mammals in the prescreening of chemical toxicity. The current study confirms that part of the well water in the Shangba Village was severely contaminated.…”

Anticancer potential of selected Fallopia Adans species

“…The assessment of toxicity using alternative methods (e.g., Artemia salina and Daphnia magna bioassays) is widely used due to the many advantages as being inexpensive, time saving and having a high degree of correlation with the acute toxicity (LC 50 ) registered in pharmacotoxicology studies on rodents (mice and rats) mammalian models (50)(51)(52).…”

“…In order to assess the toxicity at higher concentrations, another experiment was carried out at concentrations between 1,000 and 3,000 µg/ml. LC 50 were calculated only at 24 h of exposure due to the lack of information concerning the stability of the extracts and as the extracts tend to precipitate in aqueous DMSO solutions in the second day of the experiments.The brine shrimp lethality test revealed toxic effects only at high concentrations of the extracts from F. dumetorum and F. aubertii. The LC 50 exhibited by the five extracts ranged from 1872.16 to 2689.09 µg/ml (Table III).…”