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Toxicity of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (HO-PCBs) using the bioluminescent assay Microtox®

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Abstract

Hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (HO-PCBs) are toxic contaminants which are produced in the environment by biological or abiotic oxidation of PCBs. The toxicity of a suite of 23 mono-hydroxylated derivatives of PCBs and 12 parent PCBs was determined using the bacterial bioluminescent assay Microtox®. All HO-PCBs tested exhibited higher toxicity than the corresponding parent PCB, with effect concentration 50 % (EC50) ranging from 0.07 to 133 mg L−1. The highest toxicities were recorded with 4-hydroxylated derivatives of di-chlorinated biphenyls (EC50 = 0.07–0.36 mg L−1) and 2-hydroxylated derivatives of tri-chlorinated biphenyls carrying a chlorine substituent on the phenolic ring (EC50 = 0.34–0.48 mg L−1). The toxicity of HO-PCBs generally decreased when the degree of chlorination increased. Consistently with this observation, a significant positive correlation was measured between toxicity (measured by EC50) and octanol–water partition coefficient (pK ow) for the HO-PCBs under study (Pearson’s correlation coefficient, r = 0.74), which may be explained by the lower solubility and bioavailability generally associated with higher hydrophobicity. This study is the first one which assessed the toxicity of a suite of PCBs and HO-PCBs using the bioluminescent assay Microtox®, showing an inverse correlation between toxicity and hydrophobicity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Iowa Superfund Basic Research Program, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Grant No. P42 ES013661. The authors want to thank Hans-Joachim Lehmler (University of Iowa) for providing most PCBs and HO-PCBs used in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Temple University, 1947 N. 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19122, USA

    Renu Bhalla, Rouzbeh Tehrani & Benoit Van Aken

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  1. Renu Bhalla
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  2. Rouzbeh Tehrani
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  3. Benoit Van Aken
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Correspondence to Benoit Van Aken.

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Bhalla, R., Tehrani, R. & Van Aken, B. Toxicity of hydroxylated polychlorinated biphenyls (HO-PCBs) using the bioluminescent assay Microtox® . Ecotoxicology 25, 1438–1444 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-016-1693-z

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