An "in vitro" approach to water pollution monitoring.

Pollutants of River Lambro, a tributary River Po, were monitored by their potential to induce 1A1 isoform of cytochrome P450 in the FaO hepatoma cell line. Extracts of water samples taken during different months over about one year were fractionated by reverse phase HPLC technique. Six fractions of decreasing polarity were collected, concentrated, freeze-dried and suspended in DMSO for the treatment of the cells.