Murado M A, Prieto M A
Grupo de Reciclado e Valorización de Materiais Residuais (REVAL), Instituto de Investigacións Mariñas (CSIC), r/Eduardo Cabello 6, Vigo, 36208 Galicia, Spain.
ScientificWorldJournal. 2014 Feb 6;2014:936202. doi: 10.1155/2014/936202. eCollection 2014.
An interesting toxicological bioassay (fertilization inhibition in sea urchin) uses as assessment criterion a variable (fertilization ratio) whose variation with time creates two types of difficulties. First, it fails to distinguish between the toxic effect and the spontaneous decline in the sperm activity, causing some inconsistencies. Second, the sensitivity of the fertilization ratio to many other variables of the system requires a complex standardization, constraining the achievement of the method without solving its main problem. Our proposal consists of using a parameter (sperm half-life) as the response of the assay, and describing explicitly the behavior of the system as a simultaneous function of dose and time. This new focus is able to solve the problematic character of the results based on the fertilization ratio and by using the same data set which is required by the conventional approach; it simplifies the protocol, economizes experimental effort, provides unambiguous and robust results, and contributes to the detection of an artefactual temperature effect, which is not very evident under the usual perspective. Potential application of this new approach to the improvement of other formally similar bioassays is finally suggested.
一种有趣的毒理学生物测定法（海胆受精抑制试验）将一个变量（受精率）用作评估标准，而该变量随时间的变化会产生两类困难。首先，它无法区分毒性效应和精子活性的自然下降，从而导致一些不一致性。其次，受精率对系统中许多其他变量的敏感性需要进行复杂的标准化处理，这限制了该方法的实施，且未能解决其主要问题。我们的建议是使用一个参数（精子半衰期）作为测定的响应，并明确将系统行为描述为剂量和时间的同时函数。这种新的关注点能够基于与传统方法所需相同的数据集，解决基于受精率的结果所存在的问题特性；它简化了实验方案，节省了实验工作量，提供了明确且可靠的结果，并有助于检测一种在通常视角下不太明显的人为温度效应。最后建议了这种新方法在改进其他形式上类似的生物测定法方面的潜在应用。
