Cytotoxicity of various chemicals and mycotoxins in fresh primary duck embryonic fibroblasts: a comparison to HepG2 cells

To screen cost‐effectively the overall toxicity of a sample, particularly in the case of food and feed ingredient quality control, a sensitive bioassay is necessary. With the wide variety of cytotoxicity assays, performance comparison between assays using different cells has become of interest. Fresh primary duck embryonic fibroblasts (DEF) were hypothesized to be a sensitive tool for in vitro cytotoxicity screening; cell viability of DEF in response to various cytotoxins was determined and compared with response of HepG2 cells. The IC₅₀ values by the alamar blue assay in the DEF cells had a high correlation (R² = 0.96) with those obtained in HepG2 cells. Within the same toxin, primary DEF yielded significantly lower IC₅₀ values than that obtained from HepG2 cells using the MTT and alamar blue assay. Additionally, primary DEF responded to all mycotoxins tested using the alamar blue assay, while HepG2 was less sensitive, particularly at short exposure times. The estimated IC₅₀ for aflatoxin B₁, fumonisins B₁ and deoxynivalenol in DEF after 72 h incubation were 3.69, 4.19 and 1.26 μg ml^–1, respectively. Results from the current study suggest that primary DEF are more sensitive to cytotoxins and mycotoxins compared to HepG2, and thus may have great potential as an effective tool for cytotoxicity assessment. The question remains whether in vitro IC₅₀ values can accurately predict in vivo toxicity; however, the current study accentuates the need for further attention to identify sensitive cell models for in vitro cytotoxicity screening and subsequent exploration of species‐specific prediction models for in vivo toxicity. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.