Flatworms possess adult pluripotent stem cells whose dynamics can easily be experimentally assessed in vivo. This feature provides the unique opportunity to be used in a pharmacological context to test the safety of chemicals. The objective of this study was to develop and assess the applicability of an alternative in vivo test with a low-level organism where stem cell proliferation is used as an endpoint to predict the carcinogenicity of chemicals. As a start, to obtain proof of concept with this new test model, we tested 4 known carcinogens (2 DNA-reactive and 2 non-DNA-reactive) and 2 noncarcinogens as negative controls. We evaluated our carcinogenicity prediction model and advocate for its future use in pharmacological safety screenings.
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