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Effects of perfluorinated compounds on development of zebrafish embryos

  • 15th International Symposium on Toxicity Assessment
  • Published:
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Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) have been widely used in industrial and consumer products and frequently detected in many environmental media. Potential reproductive effects of perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) have been reported in mice, rats and water birds. PFOS and PFOA were also confirmed developing toxicants towards zebrafish embryos; however, the reported effect concentrations were contradictory. Polyfluorinated alkylated phosphate ester surfactants (including FC807) are precursor of PFOS and PFOA; however, there is no published information about the effects of FC807 and PFNA on zebrafish embryos. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the effects of these four PFCs on zebrafish embryos. Normal fertilized zebrafish embryos were selected to be exposed to several concentrations of PFOA, PFNA, PFOS or FC807 in 24-well cell culture plates. A digital camera was used to image morphological anomalies of embryos with a stereomicroscope. Embryos were observed through matching up to 96-h post-fertilization (hpf) and rates of survival and abnormalities recorded. PFCs caused lethality in a concentration-dependent manner with potential toxicity in the order of PFOS > FC807 > PFNA > PFOA based on 72-h LC50. Forty-eight-hour post-fertilization pericardial edema and 72- or 96-hpf spine crooked malformation were all observed. PFOA, PFNA, PFOS and FC807 all caused structural abnormalities using early stages of development of zebrafish. The PFCs all retarded the development of zebrafish embryos. The toxicity of the PFCs was related to the length of the PFC chain and functional groups.

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Acknowledgements

This work was jointly funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20737001, 20977047, 21007022) and the Environmental Monitoring Research Foundation of Jiangsu Province (No. 1114). The research was supported by a Discovery Grant from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Project # 326415-07). The authors wish to acknowledge the support of an instrumentation grant from the Canada Foundation for Infrastructure. Prof. Giesy was supported by the Canada Research Chair program, The Department of Biology and Chemistry and State Key Laboratory in Marine Pollution, City University of Hong Kong, The Einstein Professor Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Visiting Professor Program of King Saud University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Xin-Mei Zheng, Hong-Ling Liu, Wei Shi, Si Wei, John P. Giesy & Hong-Xia Yu

  2. Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences and Toxicology Centre, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada

    John P. Giesy

  3. Department of Zoology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    John P. Giesy

  4. Center for Integrative Toxicology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

    John P. Giesy

  5. Zoology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P. O. Box 2455, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    John P. Giesy

  6. Department of Biology and Chemistry, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    John P. Giesy

  7. School of Biological Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR, China

    John P. Giesy

  8. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Oceanography and Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China

    John P. Giesy

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  1. Xin-Mei Zheng
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  2. Hong-Ling Liu
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  3. Wei Shi
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  4. Si Wei
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  5. John P. Giesy
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  6. Hong-Xia Yu
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Correspondence to Hong-Ling Liu or Hong-Xia Yu.

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Zheng, XM., Liu, HL., Shi, W. et al. Effects of perfluorinated compounds on development of zebrafish embryos. Environ Sci Pollut Res 19, 2498–2505 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-012-0977-y

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