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Effects of perfluorooctanesulfonate and perfluorobutanesulfonate on the growth and sexual development of Xenopus laevis

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Abstract

Perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS), as a substitute for perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), is widespread in the environment and biotic samples as well as PFOS. To investigate effects of PFOS and PFBS on the growth and sexual development of amphibians, we exposed Xenopus laevis tadpoles at a series of concentrations of PFOS and PFBS (0.1; 1; 100; 1,000 μg/l) as well as 17-beta-estradiol (E2, 100 ng/l) and 5 alpha-androstan-17-beta-ol-3-one (DHT, 100 ng/l) from stage 46/47 to 2 months postmetamorphosis. We found that neither PFOS nor PFBS had a significant effect on the survival and growth. However, they caused hepatohistological impairment at higher concentrations (100; 1,000 μg/l). Unlike E2, PFOS at all concentrations did not alter the sex ratio and induce intersex, but caused degeneration of spermatogonia in testes except for the lowest concentration. PFBS had no effect on the sex ratio and gonadal histology. PFOS and PFBS promoted expression of estrogen receptor (ER) and androgen receptor (AR), but not affected aromatase expression in the brain. The increase in expression of ER and AR suggests an increase in the responsiveness to the corresponding sex hormone and potential effects on sexual development. Our results show that PFBS as well as PFOS have adverse effects on hepato-histology and sexual development on X. laevis. Also, PFOS- and PFBS-induced increase in ER and AR expression highlights the need to further study effects of PFOS and PFBS on subsequently gonadal development, sexual dimorphism, and secondary sex characteristics in X. laevis. It is debatable that PFBS is widely used as a substitute of PFOS.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Grants from Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China (863 Plan) (2010AA 065105), Public Welfare Research Project (201109048, 201110250), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (21077125).

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Environment, Nanjing University of Technology, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Qin-Qin Lou & Wu-Ji Wei

  2. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Qin-Qin Lou, Yin-Feng Zhang, Zhen Zhou, Ya-Li Shi, Ya-Nan Ge, Dong-Kai Ren, Hai-Ming Xu, Ya-Xian Zhao & Zhan-Fen Qin

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  1. Qin-Qin Lou
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Lou, QQ., Zhang, YF., Zhou, Z. et al. Effects of perfluorooctanesulfonate and perfluorobutanesulfonate on the growth and sexual development of Xenopus laevis . Ecotoxicology 22, 1133–1144 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-013-1100-y

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