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 1993-1994

An In Vitro Model for Human Peripheral Nerve Demyelination

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

In the second year of this research, Rutkowski and colleagues will generate neuronal cell lines from rat embryonic progenitor cells and assess the feasibility of an in vitro myelinating system using the rodent cells. The validity of this model will then be examined by treating the myelinated co-cultures with neurotoxins which affect either neurons or Schwann cells. The objective is to develop an in vitro model for neurotoxicity testing using human cell lines.