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Prolonged exposure of di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate induces multigenerational toxic effects in Caenorhabditis elegans
- Source :
- The Science of the total environment. 634
- Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- The plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) is an emerging organic contaminant that has represented a risk for organisms present in the environment. However, there is still limited information regarding DEHP-induced multigenerational toxicity and the underlying mechanisms. In this study we investigated the multigenerational toxic effects including locomotive behaviors and reproduction upon prolonged DEHP exposure (from larval L1 to adult) and the underlying mechanisms in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. The multigenerational effects were examined over 6 generations (F0-F5) with only parental C. elegans (F0) was exposed to DEHP from larval L1 to adults (72h), and the subsequent offsprings (F1-F5) were grown under DEHP-free conditions. The results showed that prolonged exposure (72h) to various concentrations of DEHP caused dose-dependent locomotive impairments and reproduction defects in C. elegans and that a concentration of 0.2mg/L DEHP was enough to cause such sublethal effects. The results showed that after prolonged exposure to DEHP in the F0 generation, abnormal locomotive behaviors such as reduced body bends and head thrashes were observed from generations F0 to F5. Additionally, prolonged exposure to DEHP (20mg/L) in F0 significantly reduced total brood size in F0, and this parental exposure was sufficient to cause multigenerational reproductive toxicity in the offspring generations (F1-F5) as well. Furthermore, the expressions of reproduction-related genes such as vit-2 and vit-6 were down-regulated by about 20% until F3, and the expression of H3Kme2 demethylase, spr-5, was downregulated in F1 by about 40%. Results from this study demonstrate that prolonged exposure to DEHP only at F0 adversely affected reproduction and locomotive behaviors in C. elegans across generations and might be associated with inadequate vitellogenin production and malfunction of H3Kme2 demethylase. This study implies that parentally prolonged exposure to DEHP caused multigenerational defects in both reproduction and locomotive behaviors raising the potential health and ecological risk.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
endocrine system
Environmental Engineering
Offspring
media_common.quotation_subject
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Hazardous Substances
Andrology
03 medical and health sciences
Vitellogenin
chemistry.chemical_compound
Vitellogenins
Diethylhexyl Phthalate
medicine
Environmental Chemistry
Animals
Caenorhabditis elegans
Waste Management and Disposal
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
media_common
biology
Reproduction
Phthalate
Neurotoxicity
biology.organism_classification
medicine.disease
Pollution
030104 developmental biology
chemistry
Toxicity
biology.protein
Reproductive toxicity
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 18791026
- Volume :
- 634
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Science of the total environment
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....43f3b8037908e2273491883463498ece