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 1984-1985

Specific Protein Synthesis as an Indicator of Cellular Injury

John M. Frazier, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

John M. Frazier, PhD, of the Hopkins School of Public Health, received renewed funding for his work on an in vitro method of measuring production of metallothionein, a protein produced in rat liver cells. When exposed to the toxic metal cadmium, the cells increase their production of metallothionein, which contains cadmium in its chemical structure. Simultaneously, total protein production by the cell declines.

Such changes may be useful in tests of potential pollutants, such as waste water, in addition to tests of new consumer products and industrial goods. This research also suggests that metallothionein production plays an important role in protecting the body from toxic metals, Dr. Frazier says.