A possible role of metabolism by intestinal bacteria in arbutin-induced toxicity was investigated in mammalian cell cultures. Following an incubation of arbutin with intestinal bacteria, either Bifidobacterium longum HY81 or Bifidobacterium adolescentis, for 24 h, its aglycone hydroquinone could be produced and detected in the bacterial culture media. The bacterial growth was not affected up to 10 mM arbutin in the culture medium. When the toxicity of bacteria cultured medium with arbutin was tested in the HepG2 cell lines, the medium with arbutin was more toxic than either parent arbutin only or bacteria cultured medium without arbutin, indicating that metabolic activation might be required in arbutin-induced toxicity. In addition, bacteria cultured medium with arbutin could suppress LPS and ConA mitogenicity in splenocyte cultures prepared from normal mice. The results indicate that the present toxicity testing system might be applied for assessing the possible role of metabolism by intestinal bacteria in certain chemical-induced toxicity in mammalian cell cultures.