Abstract
Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is gaining widespread attention as a persistent organic pollutant with multiple mechanisms of toxicity. In this study, PFOS at different concentrations and different exposure times was used to evaluate the multiple toxicities on intact planarian Dugesia japonica. The proliferation of neoblasts, apoptosis, DNA damage and the expression levels of neuronal genes and the major genes of the Wnt pathway were effectively studied. The results demonstrated that the balance between proliferation and apoptosis of intact planarian cells was disrupted after PFOS exposure, which in turn affected tissue homeostasis and differentiation. PFOS exposure led to increased DNA damage and altered neuronal gene expression. In addition, PFOS exposure could down-regulate the expression of Wnt pathway genes, but the inhibition of the Wnt pathway by PFOS was time- and concentration-dependent. These findings suggest that PFOS has multiple toxic effects on planarians and may interfere with cell proliferation and neurodevelopment by affecting the key gene expression in the Wnt pathway, providing estimable information on the neurodevelopmental toxicity and ecotoxicity of PFOS toxicity in aquatic animals and environments.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant numbers 31100377 and 41201518) and the Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation, China (grant numbers ZR2019MC028 and ZR2020MC037.
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Jingyi Sun, Xinxin Shao, Jinying Huang, and Mengxin Gong. Fundings were acquired by Jianyong Zhang and Zuoqing Yuan. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Jingyi Sun and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Sun, J., Shao, X., Huang, J. et al. Multiple toxicity evaluations of perfluorooctane sulfonate on intact planarian Dugesia japonica. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 60932–60945 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26842-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26842-4