Respirometric Screening and Characterization of Mitochondrial Toxicants Within the ToxCast Phase I and II Chemical Libraries.

Mitochondrial toxicity drives several adverse health outcomes. Current high-throughput screening assays for chemically induced mitochondrial toxicity typically measure changes to mitochondrial structure and may not detect known mitochondrial toxicants. We adapted a respirometric screening assay (RSA) measuring mitochondrial function to screen ToxCast chemicals in HepG2 cells using a tiered testing strategy.

Investigating oxidative stress and inflammatory responses elicited by silver nanoparticles using high-throughput reporter genes in HepG2 cells: effect of size, surface coating, and intracellular uptake.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag NP) have been shown to generate reactive oxygen species; however, the association between physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles and cellular stress responses elicited by exposure has not been elucidated. Here, we examined three key stress-responsive pathways activated by Nrf-2/ARE, NFκB, and AP1 during exposure to Ag NP of two distinct sizes (10 and 75 nm) and coatings (citrate and polyvinylpyrrolidone), as well as silver nitrate (AgNO3), and CeO2 nanoparticles. The in vitro assays assessed the cellular response in a battery of stable luciferase-reporter HepG2 cell lines.