Dataset Information

The Effect of Microplastic on the Uptake of Chemicals by the Lugworm Arenicola marina (L.) under Environmentally Relevant Exposure Conditions.

ABSTRACT: It has been hypothesized that ingestion of microplastic increases exposure of aquatic organisms to hydrophobic contaminants. To date, most laboratory studies investigated chemical transfer from ingested microplastic without taking other exposure pathways into account. Therefore, we studied the effect of polyethylene (PE) microplastic in sediment on PCB uptake by Arenicola marina as a model species, quantifying uptake fluxes from all natural exposure pathways. PCB concentrations in sediment, biota lipids (C_lip) and porewater measured with passive samplers were used to derive lipid-normalized bioaccumulation metrics C_lip, Biota sediment accumulation factor (BSAF), Bioaccumulation factor (BAF) and the Biota plastic accumulation factor (BPAF). Small effects of PE addition were detected suggesting slightly increased or decreased bioaccumulation. However, the differences decreased in magnitude dependent on the metric used to assess bioaccumulation, in the order: C_lip > BSAF > BPAF > BAF, and were nonsignificant for BAF. The fact that BAF, that is, normalization of C_lip on porewater concentration, largely removed all effects of PE, shows that PE did not act as a measurable vector of PCBs. Biodynamic model analysis confirmed that PE ingestion contributed marginally to bioaccumulation. This work confirmed model-based predictions on the limited relevance of microplastic for bioaccumulation under environmentally realistic conditions, and illustrated the importance of assessing exposure through all media in microplastic bioaccumulation studies.

SUBMITTER: Besseling E

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5541328 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The Effect of Microplastic on the Uptake of Chemicals by the Lugworm Arenicola marina (L.) under Environmentally Relevant Exposure Conditions.

Besseling Ellen E Foekema Edwin M EM van den Heuvel-Greve Martine J MJ Koelmans Albert A AA

Environmental science & technology 20170718 15

It has been hypothesized that ingestion of microplastic increases exposure of aquatic organisms to hydrophobic contaminants. To date, most laboratory studies investigated chemical transfer from ingested microplastic without taking other exposure pathways into account. Therefore, we studied the effect of polyethylene (PE) microplastic in sediment on PCB uptake by Arenicola marina as a model species, quantifying uptake fluxes from all natural exposure pathways. PCB concentrations in sediment, biot ...[more]

PMID: 28682597

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Project description:BackgroundThere is a suite of chemicals, including metals, pesticides, and personal care product compounds, which are commonly detected at high levels in US Center for Disease Control's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) chemical biomarker screens. Whether these chemicals influence development of breast cancer is not well understood.ObjectivesThe objectives were to perform an unbiased concentration-dependent assessment of these chemicals, to quantify differences in cancer-specific genes and pathways, to describe if these differences occur at human population-relevant concentrations, and to specifically test for differences in markers of stemness and cellular plasticity.MethodsWe treated nontumorigenic mammary epithelial cells, MCF10A, with 21 chemicals at four concentrations (25 nM, 250 nM, 2.5μM, and 25μM) for 48 h. We conducted RNA-sequencing for these 408 samples, adapting the plexWell plate-based RNA-sequencing method to analyze differences in gene expression. We calculated gene and biological pathway-specific benchmark concentrations (BMCs) using BMDExpress3, identifying differentially expressed genes and generating the best fit benchmark concentration models for each chemical across all genes. We identified enriched biological processes and pathways for each chemical and tested whether chemical exposures change predicted cell type distributions. We contextualized benchmark concentrations relative to human population biomarker concentrations in NHANES.ResultsWe detected chemical concentration-dependent differences in gene expression for thousands of genes. Enrichment and cell type distribution analyses showed benchmark concentration responses correlated with differences in breast cancer-related pathways, including induction of basal-like characteristics for some chemicals, including arsenic, lead, copper, and methyl paraben. Comparison of benchmark data to NHANES chemical biomarker (urine or blood) concentrations indicated an overlap between exposure levels and levels sufficient to cause a gene expression response.DiscussionThese analyses revealed that many of these 21 chemicals resulted in differences in genes and pathways involved in breast cancer in vitro at human exposure-relevant concentrations. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12886.

Dataset Information

The Effect of Microplastic on the Uptake of Chemicals by the Lugworm Arenicola marina (L.) under Environmentally Relevant Exposure Conditions.

Publications

The Effect of Microplastic on the Uptake of Chemicals by the Lugworm Arenicola marina (L.) under Environmentally Relevant Exposure Conditions.

Similar Datasets

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