The stage-specific toxicity of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Seth D Currie; Joseph Patrick Doherty; Kathy S Xue; Jia-Sheng Wang; Lili Tang

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122429

The stage-specific toxicity of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in nematode Caenorhabditis elegans

Environ Pollut. 2023 Nov 1:336:122429. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122429. Epub 2023 Aug 22.

Authors

Seth D Currie¹, Joseph Patrick Doherty², Kathy S Xue³, Jia-Sheng Wang¹, Lili Tang⁴

Affiliations

¹ Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA; Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
² Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
³ Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.
⁴ Interdisciplinary Toxicology Program, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA; Department of Environmental Health Science, College of Public Health, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602, USA. Electronic address: ltang@uga.edu.

PMID: 37619695
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122429

Abstract

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are a diverse class of industrial chemicals that have been used for decades in industrial and commercial applications. Due to their widespread usages, persistence in the environment, and bioaccumulation in animals and humans, great public health concerns have been raised on adverse health risks of PFAS. In this study, ten PFAS were selected according to their occurrence in different water bodies. The wild-type worms were exposed to individual PFAS at 0, 0.1, 1,10, 100, and 200 μM, and the toxic effects of PFAS on growth, development, fecundity, and behavior at different life stages were investigated using a high-throughput screening (HTS) platform. Our results showed that perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS), 1H,1H, 2H, 2H-perfluorooctanesulfonamidoacetic acid (NEtFOSAA), perfluorobutanesulfonic (PFBS), and perfluorohexanesulfonic acid (PFHxS) exhibited significant inhibitive effects on the growth in the L4 larva and later stages of worms with concentrations ranging from 0.1 to 200 μmol/L. PFOS and PFBS significantly decreased the brood size of worms across all tested concentrations (p < 0.05), and the most potent PFAS is PFOS with BMC of 0.02013 μM (BMCL, 1.6e-06 μM). During adulthood, all PFAS induced a significant reduction in motility (p < 0.01), while only PFOS can significantly induce behavior alteration at the early larvae stage. Furthermore, the adverse effects occurred in larval stages were found to be the most susceptible to the PFAS exposure. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential adverse effects associated with PFAS exposure and show the importance of considering developmental stages in toxicity assessments.

Keywords: Behavior; Caenorhabditis elegans; Development; High-throughput screening; Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances; Reproduction.

MeSH terms

Adult
Alkanesulfonic Acids* / toxicity
Animals
Bioaccumulation
Caenorhabditis elegans
Fluorocarbons* / toxicity
Humans

Substances

perfluorooctane sulfonic acid
Alkanesulfonic Acids
Fluorocarbons