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 1991-1992

An In Vitro Model for Human Peripheral Nerve Demyelination

J. Lynn Rutkowski, PhD
The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Dr. Rutkowski proposes to develop cell lines that will serve as a model to study peripheral nerve demyelinization. Peripheral neuropathy with demyelination is one of the most common reactions of the nervous system to drugs and commercial products. To further our understanding of nerve demyelination, the researchers are working to develop an in vitro model for detecting human peripheral neurotoxins using permanent cell lines. They will attempt to generate human Schwann cell lines, as they have already done with rat Schwann cells; test cell lines for their capacity to form myelin; and examine the effects of well-understood neurotoxins eventually to generate a neuronal toxicity test system.