Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 210, Issue -, Pages 27-33Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2015.11.051
Keywords
Phosphorus-containing flame retardants; Thyroid hormone-disrupting effects; Reporter gene assay; Ecological risks
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [21337005, 21307109, 21377119]
- Cultivation Fund of the Key Scientific and Technical Innovation Project, Ministry of Education of China [708052]
- Zhejiang Provincial Xinmiao Talent Plan [2015R403057]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In recent years, phosphorus-containing flame retardants (PFRs) have been frequently detected in various environmental media and biota - and in humans - as the result of steady increase in global usage of PFRs. However, studies on the potential health and ecological risks of PFRs are still scarce. In this study, we investigated the thyroid hormone-disrupting activity and ecological risk of nine frequently detected PFRs by in vitro, in vivo and in silico approaches. Results from the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay showed that tributyl phosphate (TNBP), tricresyl phosphate (TMPP), tris(2-chloroisopropyl)phosphate (TCIPP) and tris(2-chloro-1-(chloromethyl)ethyl)phosphate (TDCIPP) exerted thyroid receptor beta (TR beta) antagonistic activity, with the values of RIC20 of 5.2 x 10(-7), 2.7 x 10(-7),1.2 x 10(-6) and 6.8 x 10(-6) M, respectively. Molecular docking platform simulations suggested that the observed effects may be attributed to direct binding of PFRs to TR. Results from the T-screen assay indicated that TNBP and TMPP showed T-3 antagonistic activity and thus significantly decreased the viability of GH(3) cell lines in the presence of T-3. The exposure assay using Xenopus tropicalis embryos revealed the potential teratogenic effect of TNBP, TMPP, TCIPP and TDCIPP. In conclusion, our studies revealed that some PFRs were potential thyroid hormone disruptors and may cause health and ecological risks. However, the mode of action of PFRs on TR remains uncertain. The correlation between the predicted affinity and the amplitude of the effect observed in cell based assay is encouraging, but not decisive. Further in vitro binding experiments of TR and PFRs are required. At the same time, the results provided here also demonstrated that multi-model approaches are of great importance to comprehensively evaluate the potential risks of emerging contaminants. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available