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

Development of an In Vitro Model for Human Response to Dioxin

Thomas A. Sutter, PhD
Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland

The investigator's objective is to develope an epithelial cell culture system for measurements of human response to TCDD. Sutter and colleagues will investigate the application of human epithelial cell culture systems in assessments of high to low dose extrapolations for human biological response and inter-individual variation.

Specific objectives include defining culture conditions that permit both the efficient growth of normal human epidermal keratinocytes and their response to treatment with TCDD and determining the relationship between administered dose of TCDD in culture medium to dose of TCDD in cell culture. The researchers will determine the TCDD concentration-response relationships for increases in levels of TCDD-inducible mRNA species and corresponding proteins in a single strain of human epidermal keratinocytes.