The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

Johns Hopkins School of Public Health

Research Grants 1983-1984

Arrhythmogenicity of Volatile Compounds in Beating Heart Cell Cultures and the Importance of pH Oxygenation and Cathecholamines

David J. Miletich, PhD
Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, Chicago, Illinois

Problem

The cardiovascular toxicity of volatile substances commonly found in most homes and many industrial plants--factory degreasers, petroleum fuels, solvents, plastic coatings and other industrial chemicals--has long been recognized. But toxicity testing of these volatile compounds is receiving far greater attention today largely due to the notoriety of young "abusers" who use volatile vapors to induce a drug "high." Each year, hundreds of youths die suddenly after deliberately inhaling common household products. Autopsy findings reveal that death is caused by cardiac arythmia, one of the chief toxic effects of these chemicals. In this study, the researcher proposes to expand and evaluate a new method developed in his laboratory for the study of arythmogenicity of volatile anesthetics. This technique exposes beating heart cells in tissue culture to volatile substances, and then measures the disturbances in the cell contraction rate and contractile rhythm.

Impact of the Research

Cell cultures can be produced in abundance and volatile substances can be rapidly evaluated for their arythmic-promoting potential.