Issue 43, 2021, Issue in Progress

Antioxidant defense system responses, lysosomal membrane stability and DNA damage in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid: an integrated biomarker approach to evaluating toxicity

Abstract

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) is one of the most representative perfluoroalkyl substances and has garnered intense human and ecological health concerns due to its ubiquity in the environment, bio-accumulative nature and potential toxicological effects. In this study, an artificial soil containing PFOA was used to evaluate the biological toxicity of PFOA to earthworms Eisenia fetida. Six kinds of oxidative stress biomarkers, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione S-transferase (GST), reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (LPO), as well as lysosomal membrane stability (LMS) and DNA damage in earthworms were detected after exposure to 0, 10, 20, 40, 80 and 120 mg kg−1 PFOA in the soil for 3, 7, 14, 28, and 42 days. The results of multi-biomarker responses indicated that PFOA can induce various adverse effects on earthworms, including growth inhibition, oxidative stress and genotoxicity, resulting in lipid membrane peroxidation, decreased lysosomal membrane stability and DNA damage. LPO, LMS and DNA damage all presented dose- and time-dependent relationships. An integrated biomarker response (IBR) index was applied to summarize the multi-biomarker responses to star plots, and the IBR value was calculated as the area of the plots to indicate the integrated stress of PFOA on earthworms. The IBR index showed that the integrated stress induced by PFOA increased markedly throughout the exposure period, exhibiting a concentration-related and exposure time-related effect. The graphical changing trend of the IBR star plots, along with the multi-biomarker responses, suggested that the biomarkers of the antioxidant defense system in earthworms are sufficiently sensitive for short-term PFOA biomonitoring programs, while the bioindicators that indicate actual damage in organisms are more suitable to be employed in long-term monitoring programs for the risk assessment of PFOA. This is the first study evaluating the biological toxicity of PFOA by using an integrated biomarker approach. Our results showed that PFOA can potentially damage soil ecosystems, which provides valuable information for chemical risk assessment of PFOA in the soil environment and early warning bioindicators of soils contaminated by PFOA.

Graphical abstract: Antioxidant defense system responses, lysosomal membrane stability and DNA damage in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid: an integrated biomarker approach to evaluating toxicity

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
26 May 2021
Accepted
28 Jul 2021
First published
03 Aug 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 26481-26492

Antioxidant defense system responses, lysosomal membrane stability and DNA damage in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) exposed to perfluorooctanoic acid: an integrated biomarker approach to evaluating toxicity

Z. Wang, C. Li, Y. Shao, W. Xue, N. Wang, X. Xu and Z. Zhang, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 26481 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA04097A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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