Astrocytes: Potential Modulators of Heavy Metal-Induced Neurotoxicity

Metals are inextricably bound into many facets of modern human existence. While some are biologically essential (zinc, copper, vanadium, manganese), others are not and are actually toxic (lead, cadmium, mercury). For the environmental health sciences, positioned at the juncture of toxicology and social health regulation, the ultimate question is the estimation of risk. This is often based on extrapolation from the dose-response curve. However, with the exception of catastrophic accidents or unique circumstances of occupational exposure, it is chronic exposure at the lower end of the dose-response curve that poses the greatest threat to mankind and the greatest challenge to toxicologists. Progress in neurotoxicology, like any other science, is based on the pillars of new developments in experimental methodologies; these have been critical to the rapid advances in the understanding of nervous system physiology and pathology. In the held of neurotoxicology one significant example of such advances is the development of methodologies for the in vitro culturing of a variety of CNS-derived cells, including astrocytes.