TY - JOUR

T1 - Caenorhabditis elegans

T2 - an emerging model in biomedical and environmental toxicology

AU - Leung, Maxwell C. K.

AU - Williams, Phillip L.

AU - Benedetto, Alexandre

AU - Au, Catherine

AU - Helmcke, Kirsten J.

AU - Aschner, Michael

AU - Meyer, Joel N.

PY - 2008/11

Y1 - 2008/11

N2 - The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has emerged as an important animal model in various fields including neurobiology, developmental biology, and genetics. Characteristics of this animal model that have contributed to its success include its genetic manipulability, invariant and fully described developmental program, well-characterized genome, ease of maintenance, short and prolific life cycle, and small body size. These same features have led to an increasing use of C. elegans in toxicology, both for mechanistic studies and high-throughput screening approaches. We describe some of the research that has been carried out in the areas of neurotoxicology, genetic toxicology, and environmental toxicology, as well as high-throughput experiments with C. elegans including genome-wide screening for molecular targets of toxicity and rapid toxicity assessment for new chemicals. We argue for an increased role for C. elegans in complementing other model systems in toxicological research.

AB - The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has emerged as an important animal model in various fields including neurobiology, developmental biology, and genetics. Characteristics of this animal model that have contributed to its success include its genetic manipulability, invariant and fully described developmental program, well-characterized genome, ease of maintenance, short and prolific life cycle, and small body size. These same features have led to an increasing use of C. elegans in toxicology, both for mechanistic studies and high-throughput screening approaches. We describe some of the research that has been carried out in the areas of neurotoxicology, genetic toxicology, and environmental toxicology, as well as high-throughput experiments with C. elegans including genome-wide screening for molecular targets of toxicity and rapid toxicity assessment for new chemicals. We argue for an increased role for C. elegans in complementing other model systems in toxicological research.

KW - Animals

KW - Caenorhabditis elegans

KW - DNA Damage

KW - DNA, Helminth

KW - Ecotoxicology

KW - Environmental Pollutants

KW - Gene Expression Regulation

KW - Helminth Proteins

KW - Humans

KW - Models, Animal

KW - Mutagens

KW - Neurons

KW - Risk Assessment

KW - Toxicity Tests

KW - Toxicology

KW - Journal Article

KW - Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

KW - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

KW - Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

KW - Review

U2 - 10.1093/toxsci/kfn121

DO - 10.1093/toxsci/kfn121

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 18566021

VL - 106

SP - 5

EP - 28

JO - Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology

JF - Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology

SN - 1096-0929

IS - 1

ER -