Biological effects related to exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) on cats

Kraisiri Khidkhan; Hazuki Mizukawa; Yoshinori Ikenaka; Shouta M M Nakayama; Kei Nomiyama; Nozomu Yokoyama; Osamu Ichii; Mitsuyoshi Takiguchi; Shinsuke Tanabe; Mayumi Ishizuka

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0277689

Biological effects related to exposure to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) on cats

PLoS One. 2023 Jan 20;18(1):e0277689. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0277689. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Kraisiri Khidkhan^{1

2}, Hazuki Mizukawa^{2

3}, Yoshinori Ikenaka^{2

4

5}, Shouta M M Nakayama², Kei Nomiyama⁶, Nozomu Yokoyama², Osamu Ichii^{2

7}, Mitsuyoshi Takiguchi², Shinsuke Tanabe⁶, Mayumi Ishizuka²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand.
² Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
³ Department of Science and Technology for Biological Resources and Environment, Graduate School of Agriculture, Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan.
⁴ Water Research Group, Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
⁵ One Health Research Center, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.
⁶ Center for Marine Environmental Studies (CMES), Ehime University, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan.
⁷ Laboratory of Agrobiomedical Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan.

Abstract

As an animal familiar to humans, cats are considered to be sensitive to chemicals; cats may be exposed to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and decabromodiphenyl ether (BDE-209) from indoor dust, household products, and common pet food, leading to adverse endocrine effects, such as thyroid hormone dysfunction. To elucidate the general biological effects resulting from exposure of cats to PCBs and PBDEs, cats were treated with a single i.p. dose of a principal mixture of 12 PCBs and observed for a short-term period. Results revealed that the testis weight, serum albumin, and total protein of the treated group decrease statistically in comparison with those in the control group. The negative correlations suggested that the decrease in the total protein and albumin levels may be disturbed by 4'OH-CB18, 3'OH-CB28 and 3OH-CB101. Meanwhile, the serum albumin level and relative brain weight decreased significantly for cats subjected to 1-year continuous oral administration of BDE-209 in comparison to those of control cats. In addition, the subcutaneous fat as well as serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL) and triglycerides (TG) levels increased in cats treated with BDE-209 and down-regulation of stearoyl-CoA desaturase mRNA expression in the liver occurred. These results suggested that chronic BDE-209 treatment may restrain lipolysis in the liver, which is associated with lipogenesis in the subcutaneous fat. Evidence of liver and kidney cell damage was not observed as there was no significant difference in the liver enzymes, blood urea nitrogen and creatinine levels between the two groups of both experiments. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that provides information on the biochemical effects of organohalogen compounds in cats. Further investigations on risk assessment and other potential health effects of PCBs and PBDEs on the reproductive system, brain, and lipid metabolism in cats are required.

Copyright: © 2023 Khidkhan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cats
Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers / toxicity
Humans
Liver / metabolism
Male
Polychlorinated Biphenyls* / metabolism
Polychlorinated Biphenyls* / toxicity
Thyroid Hormones

Substances

Polychlorinated Biphenyls
decabromobiphenyl ether
Halogenated Diphenyl Ethers
Thyroid Hormones

Grants and funding

This work was financially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (No. 16H02989), Challenging Exploratory Research (No. 17K20038) and Scientific Research (A) (No. 21H04919) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and partly supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan, to a project on Joint Usage/Research Center Leading Academia in Marine and Environmental Research (LaMer), Ehime University. This research was also supported by Sousei Tokutei Research of Hokkaido University. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.