Dysfunction of liver-gut axis in marine medaka exposed to hypoxia and perfluorobutanesulfonate

With objectives to explore the interactive mode on the function of liver-gut axis, adult marine medaka were exposed for 7 days to environmentally realistic concentrations of perfluorobutanesulfonate (PFBS) (0 and 10 mu g/ L) under normoxia or hypoxia condition. Furthermore, PFBS exposure was extended to 21 days to reveal the temporal progression in toxicity. The results showed that hypoxia exposure significantly disturbed lipid meta-bolism, caused oxidative damage, and induced inflammation in the livers of medaka. The composition of gut microbiota was also drastically shifted by hypoxia acute exposure. In contrast, the effect of PFBS was much milder. Hypoxia was thus the determinant of the combined toxicity. Depending on the exposure duration, a time -course recovery from PFBS innate toxicity was generally noted. Overall, the present study underlines the hypoxic and temporal variation in the dysregulation of liver-gut axis by PFBS, which is expected to support a compre-hensive ecological risk assessment.

Automated summary

This study aimed to explore the interactive mode on the function of liver-gut axis by exposing adult marine medaka to environmentally realistic concentrations of PFBS under normoxia or hypoxia condition. The results showed that hypoxia exposure significantly disturbed lipid metabolism, caused oxidative damage, and induced inflammation in the livers of medaka. The composition of gut microbiota was also drastically shifted by hypoxia acute exposure. PFBS had a milder effect compared to hypoxia, and a time-course recovery from its toxicity was observed.