【Special Issues:Bioassay with Molecular Techniques】
Bioassay of Dioxins
Hajime Watanabe
Department of Bioenvironmental Research, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Biosciences, National Institutes of Natural Science
（5-1 Higashiyama, Myodaiji, Okazaki, 444-8787 Japan）

Abstract
Quantitative determination of dioxins is generally performed by high-resolution GC-MS. Although this method can yield precise estimates, it is expensive and time consuming. For dioxin quantification, each chemical compound, categorized as dioxin, must first be quantitatively determined for evaluation of the total toxicity. Recently many bioassay methods for evaluation of dioxins have been developed. They are based on either an arylhydrocarbon receptor or a specific antibody to dioxin. The former requires the involvement of cell culture or other systems. The latter is rapid and easy but antibodies do not always cross-react with all dioxin compounds properly. Bioassay of dioxins can be helpful for the management of waste, but improvement of the currently available methods is desirable.

Key words: dioxin, ELISA, reporter assay, DNA microarray