Comparison of in vitro cytotoxicity, estrogenicity and anti-estrogenicity of triclosan, perfluorooctane sulfonate and perfluorooctanoic acid

Concern with increasing levels of emerging contaminants exists on a global scale. Three commonly observed emerging environmental contaminants: triclosan (2,4,4-trichloro-2'-hydroxydiphenyl ether), a synthetic, broad-spectrum antibacterial agent, and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), used in stain- and water-resistant treatments, have become distributed ubiquitously across ecosystems and have been detected in wildlife and humans. MCF-7 BOS human breast cancer cells were used to investigate the potential for cytotoxicity, estrogenicity and anti-estrogenicity of these three compounds at environmentally relevant concentrations using the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfophenyl)-2H-tetrazolium, inner salt assay (MTS) and the E-SCREEN bioassay. The doses used were 0.002200?mu g?ml-1 for triclosan and 0.0330?mu g?ml-1 for PFOS and PFOA. Quantitative results from the MTS assay revealed no significant cytotoxicity at lower concentrations for any of the test compounds; however, both triclosan and PFOA were cytotoxic at the highest concentrations examined (100200 and 30?mu g?ml-1, respectively), while PFOS showed no significant cytotoxicity at any of the concentrations tested. Positive estrogenic responses (P?