Laboratory for Pathology and Immunobiology, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), P.O. Box 1, 3720 BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2002 Jul;11(3-4):289-95.
This paper briefly reviews the application of histopathology as aninstrument or endpoint in toxicity studies in fish. For long this has been applied rather occasionally in (regulatory) toxicology, and was mainly of interest in fundamental studies and limited carcinogenicity experiments. However, nowadays there are various incentives that ask for the application of pathology, such as field monitoring of pollution effects, the wish for optimal use and lower species of laboratory animals, the availability of modern histology techniques, and insight and interest in mechanistic data. This is timely illustrated by the current broad interest in endocrine disrupting pollutants-a threat mainly in the aquatic environment-where histopathological organ and tissue changes in intact sentinel fish species provide pivotal diagnostic and mechanistic features.
本文简要回顾了组织病理学在鱼类毒性研究中作为一种工具或终点的应用。长期以来，组织病理学在（监管）毒理学中的应用相当偶然，主要是在基础性研究和有限的致癌性实验中具有一定的兴趣。然而，如今有各种因素要求应用病理学，例如污染影响的现场监测、优化使用和减少实验室动物种类的愿望、现代组织学技术的可用性，以及对机制数据的深入了解和兴趣。当前对内分泌干扰污染物的广泛关注及时说明了这一点，这些污染物主要存在于水生环境中，完整的哨兵鱼类物种的组织病理学器官和组织变化提供了关键的诊断和机制特征。
