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Acute toxicity and histopathological effects of naproxen in zebrafish (Danio rerio) early life stages

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Abstract

Zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos and larvae were selected to investigate the potential risk and aquatic toxicity of a widely used pharmaceutical, naproxen. The acute toxicity of naproxen to embryos and larvae was measured, respectively. The histopathology was investigated in the liver of zebrafish larvae after 8-day embryo-larvae exposure to naproxen. The values of 96-h LC50 were 115.2 mg/L for embryos and 147.6 mg/L for larvae, indicating that zebrafish embryos were more sensitive than larvae to naproxen exposure. Large suites of symptoms were induced in zebrafish (D. rerio) early life stages by different dosages of naproxen, including hatching inhibition, lower heart rate, and morphological abnormalities. The most sensitive sub-lethal effect caused by naproxen was pericardial edema, the 72-h EC50 values of which for embryos and larvae were 98.3 and 149.0 mg/L, respectively. In addition, naproxen-treated zebrafish larvae exhibited histopathological liver damage, including swollen hepatocytes, vacuolar degeneration, and nuclei pycnosis. The results indicated that naproxen is a potential threat to aquatic organisms.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41101499) and the national key technology R&D program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2012BAJ24B01).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Yangtze River Water Environment, Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Qian Li, Peipei Wang, Ling Chen, Hongwen Gao & Lingling Wu

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  1. Qian Li
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Li, Q., Wang, P., Chen, L. et al. Acute toxicity and histopathological effects of naproxen in zebrafish (Danio rerio) early life stages. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 18832–18841 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7092-4

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