Recent progress in cytometric technologies and their applications in ecotoxicology and environmental risk assessment

Abstract

Environmental toxicology focuses on identifying and predicting impact of potentially toxic anthropogenic chemicals on biosphere at various levels of biological organization. Presently there is a significant drive to gain deeper understanding of cellular and sub‐cellular mechanisms of ecotoxicity. Most notable is increased focus on elucidation of cellular‐response networks, interactomes, and greater implementation of cell‐based biotests using high‐throughput procedures, while at the same time decreasing the reliance on standard animal models used in ecotoxicity testing. This is aimed at discovery and interpretation of molecular pathways of ecotoxicity at large scale. In this regard, the applications of cytometry are perhaps one of the most fundamental prospective analytical tools for the next generation and high‐throughput ecotoxicology research. The diversity of this modern technology spans flow, laser‐scanning, imaging, and more recently, Raman as well as mass cytometry. The cornerstone advantages of cytometry include the possibility of multi‐parameter measurements, gating and rapid analysis. Cytometry overcomes, thus, limitations of traditional bulk techniques such as spectrophotometry or gel‐based techniques that average the results from pooled cell populations or small model organisms. Novel technologies such as cell imaging in flow, laser scanning cytometry, as well as mass cytometry provide innovative and tremendously powerful capabilities to analyze cells, tissues as well as to perform in situ analysis of small model organisms. In this review, we outline cytometry as a tremendously diverse field that is still vastly underutilized and often largely unknown in environmental sciences. The main motivation of this work is to highlight the potential and wide‐reaching applications of cytometry in ecotoxicology, guide environmental scientists in the technological aspects as well as popularize its broader adoption in environmental risk assessment.

Dissecting the Enantioselective Neurotoxicity of Isocarbophos: Chiral Insight from Cellular, Molecular, and Computational Investigations

“…67,68 Conversely, in vitro cell-based assays have the advantages of rapidity, simplicity, and low cost, and the use of cell-based assays to replace in vivo testing has gradually become an important development trend in the toxicological risk assessments of environmental pollutants. 69,70 Meanwhile, the validity of such technique has been proved by different studies related to environmental toxicities, for instance, endocrine disrupting toxicity, genotoxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. 71,72 In order to inspect the neurotoxicity of chiral isocarbophos on human health, we first used the classical neuronal cell model�human neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y�to probe the hidden secret at the enantiomeric scale.…”

“…In environmental toxicology research, animal testing is a frequently used experimental method, but it has some potential disadvantages such as time-consuming, laborious, high cost, and many uncontrollable factors. , Conversely, in vitro cell-based assays have the advantages of rapidity, simplicity, and low cost, and the use of cell-based assays to replace in vivo testing has gradually become an important development trend in the toxicological risk assessments of environmental pollutants. , Meanwhile, the validity of such technique has been proved by different studies related to environmental toxicities, for instance, endocrine disrupting toxicity, genotoxicity, immunotoxicity, neurotoxicity, and reproductive toxicity. , In order to inspect the neurotoxicity of chiral isocarbophos on human health, we first used the classical neuronal cell modelhuman neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Yto probe the hidden secret at the enantiomeric scale. Figure shows the relationships between exposure time and cell survival rate with different concentrations of isocarbophos enantiomers.…”

Analytical methodologies used for screening micro(nano)plastics in (eco)toxicity tests

“…The use of FC is not so novel in microplastics research [95] nor ecotoxicology [96] , but it has received recent attention from the scientific community when it comes to micro(nano)plastics ecotoxicity assessment. This technique has enabled the quantification and characterization of plastic particles through measurements of light scattering, allied or not with fluorescence.…”