Comparison of the Acute Immunotoxicity of Nonfractionated and Fractionated Oil Sands Process-Affected Water Using Mammalian Macrophages

OSPW is a complex mixture of inorganic and organic substances and its principal toxic components have yet to be fully characterized. Previously, we showed in vitro that the oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) organic fraction (OF) caused a concentration-dependent immunotoxicity in mammals. In the present study we further explore the immunotoxicological properties of OSPW in mammals using a series of in vitro bioassays. Specifically, using the RAW 264.7 mouse macrophage cell line we show that whole OSPW containing naphthenic acid (NA) concentrations ranging from 12 to 18 mg/L, significantly inhibited cell proliferation, reduced cell viability, and was directly cytotoxic, whereas the exposure of cells to equivalent doses of the OSPW-OF had no measurable effects. Whole OSPW exposures also caused morphological changes in RAW 264.7 cells, and at sublethal doses (i.e., 10 mg/L) it induced the early expression of the stress genes hmoxl and gadd45. In addition, at NA concentrations of 10 mg/L, whole OSPW but not the OSPW-OF had significant effects on pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNA levels and cytokine protein secretion activities. Finally, whole OSPW also impaired the ability of RAW 264.7 cells to perform phagocytosis. Overall, we demonstrate that exposure to whole OSPW (at NA doses ranging from 10 to 20 mg/L), but not the OSPW-OF caused both cytotoxic and immunomodulatory changes in mouse macrophages. This suggests that the complex mixture of inorganic and organic components found in whole OSPW are acutely toxic at much lower doses than we previously reported for the OSPW-OF (i.e., SO mg/L) due to unknown additive and/or synergistic interactions that likely occur between the various components present in whole OSPW.