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

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

David J. Miletich, PhD, of the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, received continued support for his work on an in vitro method for detecting the damage chemical vapors may do to the heart and blood vessels. At present, thousands of dogs and cats are used each year in a slow, costly, and difficult test of volatile chemicals' potential for dangerously disturbing the heart's rhythms. Dr. Miletich substitutes cultured beating heart cells for live animals to evaluate the chemicals' effects. "Results to date have been very encouraging," he says. "Studies have shown that following exposure to a volatile chemical, beating heart cells in culture respond in ways similar to the heart in the living animal. The contraction rate decreases and abnormal rhythms often appear."

So far, the heart cell test has correctly mimicked a living heart's response to an anesthetic, a refrigerant, and a degreasing agent. Dr. Miletich's studies suggest it may one day be possible to predict the potency of a chemical vapor without extensive animal testing.

Some of Dr. Miletich's CAAT-supported research has been published in the journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology (70: 181-87, 1983).