Project description:Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent pollutants known for their bio-accumulative properties and prevalence in water supplies and household products. Although legacy PFAS, such as perfluorooctanoic acid, are phased out in the U.S. due to public health concerns, a PFAS variant hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO-DA) is an emerging replacement. HFPO-DA is a potential neurotoxicant that has been shown to cause dopaminergic neurodegeneration. We investigated the bioaccumulative potential of HFPO-DA and its effects on lifespan, locomotor activity, and brain gene expression in female and male Drosophila melanogaster (fruit flies). Flies were collected less than 4 hours post-eclosion and exposed to 0, 10, 10^2, 10^3, or 10^4 mg/kg/day HFPO-DA. To measure the effect of HFPO-DA on lifespan, surviving flies from each exposure were recorded every 24 hours. Flies were subjected to a negative geotaxis assay at 3, 7, and 14 days of exposure to measure the effects of acute, sub-chronic, and chronic exposures on locomotor ability. To capture HFPO-DA-induced sexually dimorphic gene expression responses in the brain, we sequenced brain-specific mRNA from flies exposed for 3, 7, or 14 days. The Bioconcentration Factor was 0.031 for females, and 0.026 for males. Dose and median lifespan were negatively correlated in both female (R^2 adj = 0.77, p<0.0001) and male flies (R^2 adj = 0.77, p<0.0001). Log-rank Mantel-Cox tests and one-way ANOVAs revealed that median lifespan was reduced in females starting at 10 mg/kg/day and in males starting at 10^2 mg/kg/day (p< 0.01). Acute exposure at 10 mg/kg/day significantly decreased locomotor ability in females (p<0.0001) while acute exposures at 1 mg/kg/day decreased locomotor activity in males (p <0.0001). Among 7500 genes analyzed, pairwise gene expression comparison between controls and treatments identified 2496 differentially expressed genes. While HFPO-DA does not readily bioaccumulate in fruit fly bodies, high-dose exposures have sex-specific effects on lifespan, locomotor ability, and brain gene expression. LOAEL for median lifespan is 10 mg/kg/day in females, and 10^2 mg/kg/day in males. Both locomotor ability and brain gene expression exhibited non-conventional dose-response as seen in other endocrine disrupting chemical exposures.

Project description:Nafion byproduct 2 (NBP2; CAS: 749836-20-2; Product #: 6164-3-3J; Lot: 512400; SynQuest Laboratories Alachua, FL, USA) is a polyfluoroalkyl ether sulfonic acid that was recently detected in surface water, drinking water, and human serum samples from monitoring studies in North Carolina, USA. We orally exposed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats to NBP2 from gestation day (GD) 14–18 (0.1–30 mg/kg/d), GD17-21, and GD8 to postnatal day (PND) 2 (0.3–30 mg/kg/d) to characterize maternal, fetal, and postnatal effects. GD14-18 exposures were also conducted with perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) for comparison to NBP2, as well as data previously published for hexafluoropropylene oxide-dimer acid (HFPO-DA or GenX). NBP2 produced stillbirth (30 mg/kg), reduced pup survival shortly after birth (10 mg/kg), and reduced pup body weight (10 mg/kg). Histopathological evaluation identified reduced glycogen stores in newborn pup livers and hepatocyte hypertrophy in maternal livers at ≥ 10 mg/kg. Exposure to NBP2 from GD14-18 reduced maternal serum total T3 and cholesterol concentrations (30 mg/kg). Maternal, fetal, and neonatal liver gene expression was investigated using RT-qPCR pathway arrays, while maternal and fetal livers were also analyzed using TempO-Seq transcriptomic profiling. Overall, there was limited alteration of genes in maternal or F1 livers from NBP2 exposure with significant changes mostly occurring in the top dose group (30 mg/kg) associated with lipid and carbohydrate metabolism. Metabolomic profiling indicated elevated maternal bile acids for NBP2, but not HFPO-DA or PFOS, while all three reduced 3-indolepropionic acid. Maternal and fetal serum and liver NBP2 concentrations were similar to PFOS, but ∼10–30-fold greater than HFPO-DA concentrations at a given maternal oral dose. NBP2 is a developmental toxicant in the rat, producing neonatal mortality, reduced pup body weight, reduced pup liver glycogen, reduced maternal thyroid hormones, and altered maternal and offspring lipid and carbohydrate metabolism similar to other studied PFAS, with oral toxicity for pup loss that is slightly less potent than PFOS but more potent than HFPO-DA.

Project description:Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are some of the most prominent organic contaminants in human blood that have the potential to disrupt biological processes and pathways in the liver. Although the toxicological implications from human exposure to perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA) are well established, data on other, lesser-understood PFAS are limited. A challenge for regulatory authorities is to determine acceptable levels of human exposure to large, diverse classes of environmental contaminants. New approach methodologies (NAMs) that apply bioinformatics tools to interpret biological data are being increasingly considered to inform risk assessment when traditional toxicology methodologies are not amenable. The aim of the current investigation was to identify the biological responses relevant to PFAS mode of action as the concentration (benchmark dose) that these effects take place in order to utililze this information to inform/facilitate read-across for risk assessment of data-poor PFAS. A TempO-Seq platform (BioSpyder) measured gene expression changes in human liver microtissues (i.e., spheroids) after 1-day and 10-day exposures to increasing concentrations of PFAS. A bioinformatics framework was applied to 23 PFAS sub-classed into carboxylates (PFCAs), sulfonates (PFSAs), or PFAS precursors that were analyzed for the total altered transcripts, the concentration where effects take place, and identifying target genes of interest. Both PFCAs and PFSAs exhibited a trend toward increased transcriptional changes with carbon chain-length. Specifically, longer-chain compounds (7 to 10 carbons) were more likely to surpass liver-toxic transcriptomic thresholds established from previous studies than shorter chain PFAS. Longer-chain PFAS were also more potent, inducing transcriptional effects at lower concentrations. However, PFOS was the most potent PFAS and of all precursors, only PFOSA (a PFOS precursor) induced a response. The combined high-throughput transcriptomic and bioinformatics analyses revealed the capability of NAMs to assess the effects of PFAS in liver microtissues; such data improves our understanding of PFAS-related effects in humans and facilitates the use of read-across in human health risk assessment for other data-poor chemicals.

Project description:Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of synthetic chemicals that are persistent in the environment. Due to concerns linked with longer chain PFAS, shorter chain chemicals were used as replacements, but developmental toxicity assessments of the shorter chain chemicals are limited. The aim of this study was to compare the developmental toxicity of three perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs): perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), composed of 8 carbon (C8), perfluorohexanoic acid (PFHxA, C6), and perfluorobutanoic acid (PFBA, C4) using the zebrafish (Danio rerio). LC50s at 120 hour post fertilization (hpf) were determined to assess the potency of each PFAA by exposing developing zebrafish (1-120 hpf) to a range of concentrations. In sublethal assessments, zebrafish were exposed to 0, 4, 40, or 400 parts per billion (ppb; µg/L) of the PFAAs throughout embryonic development (1-72 hpf). Effects of the embryonic exposure on locomotor activities was completed with the visual motor response test at 120 hpf. At 72 hpf, morphological changes including total body length, head length, and head width were assessed. Additionally, transcriptomic profiles of PFOA, PFHxA, and PFBA were determined at 72 hpf to compare altered molecular and disease pathways. The LC50 ranking was PFOA > PFHxA > PFBA, which followed trend as expected based on chain length. PFOA caused hyperactivity and PFBA hypoactivity, while PFHxA did not change behavior. PFOA, PFHxA, and PFBA caused morphological and transcriptomic alterations that were unique for each chemical and were concentration dependent. Cancer was a top enriched disease for PFOA, while FXR/RXR activation was a top canonical pathway in all PFBA exposures. Overall, an embryonic exposure to PFOA, PFHxA, or PFBA resulted in morphological alterations in zebrafish eleuthero-embryos; however, only PFOA and PFBA induced neurobehavioral alterations. The transcriptomic profile of each chemical was unique indicating different toxicity mechanisms and were aligned with human adverse health outcomes supporting predictive value.

Dataset Information

Physiological and transcriptomic effects of hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid in Caenorhabditis elegans during development

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