Climate change and pharmaceutical contamination are two priority research topics due to their impacts in the aquatic ecosystems and in the food chain structure. In the bottom of many food chains are the invertebrates, like the amphipods, which are important environmental and ecotoxicological models. In this study, we combined the increase of temperature [ambient and warming temperature], pCO2 [normocapnia and hypercapnia] and the synthetic progestin levonorgestrel (LNG) [environmentally relevant concentration (10 ng L-1) and 100-fold higher (1000 ng L-1)] to evaluate the genotoxic effects on the amphipod Gammarus locusta haemocytes, using the comet assay technique. Additionally, the study examined protective/potentiating effects of the three tested factors against hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)-induced DNA damage in haemocytes after ex vivo exposure. Our data revealed no significant effects of any of the three stressors on DNA damage of G. locusta haemocytes or protection against H2O2-induced DNA damage after twenty-one days exposure. Only a significant effect of the solvent was visible, since it was able to induce higher DNA damage (i.e. strand breaks) on exposed individuals. On the other hand, LNG exposure seemed to induce a slight increase of DNA damage after H2O2 exposure. Our findings suggest that more short-term studies to conclude about the genotoxicity and/or protective effects of the stress factors in G. locusta should be made, attending to the fast turnover rate of repairing cells that could have masked impacts seen only after the end of the experiment.
Keywords: Aquatic animals; Climate change; Comet assay; Endocrine disruptors; Invertebrates.
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