RESEARCH IS INTENDED TO MAKE COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE A CONTAMINANT SPECIFIC ASSAY OF TOXICITY BASED ON THE PARTITIONING OF INDIVIDUAL CONTAMINANTS BETWEEN SITES OF DETOXIFICATION AND SITES OF TOXIC ACTION WITHIN EXPOSED ORGANISMS.

RESEARCH IS INTENDED TO MAKE COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE A CONTAMINANT SPECIFIC ASSAY OF TOXICITY BASED ON THE PARTITIONING OF INDIVIDUAL CONTAMINANTS BETWEEN SITES OF DETOXIFICATION AND SITES OF TOXIC ACTION WITHIN EXPOSED ORGANISMS. IMMEDIATE AIMS OF PHASE I ARE TO THOROUGHLY TEST ESTABLISHED PROCEDURES AND TO VERIFY THE PROTOCOL DEVELOPED TO COLLECT, STORE AND PROCESS SAMPLES SO AS TO PRODUCE TEST RESULTS WHICH ARE PROPERLY RESOLVED INTO THEIR COMPONENT PARTS (ENZ,MT,GSH POOLS); ARE CONTAMINANT FREE AND CONFORM TO HIGHEST STANDARDS OF QA/QC; AND DETERMINE HEALTH IMPLICATIONS WHEN DETOXIFICATIONS CAPACITY IS SURPASSED THUS LAYING THE BASIS FOR IMPLICATIONS FOR EXPOSED HUMANS. THE ASSAY IS BASED UPON GEL FILTRATION PROCEDURES TO DETERMINE THE PARTITIONING OF SPECIFIC CONTAMINANTS OF LOW MOLECULAR WEIGHT GSH POOLS, MEDIUM MOLECULAR WEIGHT MT POOLS, AND HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT ENZ POOLS. BECAUSE HIGH LEVELS OF CONTAMINANTS ARE TODAY FOUND IN URBAN RECREATIONAL LAKES FROM WHICH PEOPLE CATCH AND CONSUME 100'S OF TONS OF FISH ANNUALLY, IT IS CRITICAL THAT CONTAMINANT IMPACTS UPON HUMAN HEALTH ARE DETERMINED ACCURATELY. FISH LIVER TISSUES WILL BE ANALYSED FOR BIODETOXIFICATION USING ATOMIC ABSORPTION SPECTROPHOTOMETRY, GAS CHROMATOGRAPHY, GEL FILTRATION TECHNIQUES AND HISTOPATHOLOGY EXAMINATIONS. PHASE II WILL ESTABLISH AN INDEX OF TOXICITY, ASSIMILATION CAPACITIES FOR DETOXIFICATION SYSTEMS AND ESTABLISH A BLOOD CHEMISTRY PROGRAM FOR NON-ENVASIVE ANIMAL AND HUMAN DETOXIFICATION TESTS. WORK HAS A VERY HIGH POTENTIAL FOR MAKING COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE A HIGHLY ACCURATE TOXICITY TEST WHICH WILL ENABLE A CLEAR DETERMINATION OF WHAT SPECIFIC CONTAMINANTS ARE CAUSING TOXIC EFFECTS IN A MULTI-CONTAMINANT ENVIRONMENT.