2-methylimidazole

Specific investigations: other studies

Administrative data

Endpoint:

cytotoxicity

Adequacy of study:

other information

Data source

Reference

Reference Type:

publication

Title:

Cytotoxicity testing of 114 compouds by the determination of the protein content in the HEP G2 cell culture

Author:

Dierickx, P.J.

Year:

1989

Bibliographic source:

Toxic. in Vitro Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 189-193

Materials and methods

Principles of method if other than guideline:

The cellular protein content measured in cultured Hep G2 cells was used as the endpoint for determining die cytotoxicity of a range of 114 chemical campounds. The relative toxicity of the test compounds was quantified by the determination of the PI50, which is the concentration of xenobiotic required to produce a 50% reduction in protein content of the culture after 24 hr.

Test material

Test material information

Constituent 1

Reference substance name:

2-methylimidazole

EC Number:

211-765-7

EC Name:

2-methylimidazole

Cas Number:

693-98-1

Molecular formula:

C4H6N2

IUPAC Name:

2-methyl-1H-imidazole

Results and discussion

Details on results:

Surfactants and heavy metais consistently had low PI50 values. Hep G2 cells were very sensitive to compaunds with more than one carboxyl group. Triacetin and glutathione were identified as false positives. The results suggest that the PI50 assay could be a useful pre-screening method to test for the cytotoxicity of chemicals.
Alkylation of a compound consistently lowered the PI50. This can be seen in the table for imidazole (45 mM) and 2-methyl imidazole (18 mM).