Assessment of hormonal activities and genotoxicity of industrial effluents using in vitro bioassays combined with chemical analysis

Abstract

Wastewaters from various industries are a main source of the contaminants in aquatic environments. The authors evaluated the hormonal activities (estrogenic/anti‐estrogenic activities, androgenic/anti‐androgenic activities) and genotoxicity of various effluents from textile and dyeing plants, electronic and electroplate factories, pulp and paper mills, fine chemical factories, and municipal wastewater treatment plants in the Pearl River Delta region by using in vitro bioassays (yeast estrogen screen [YES]; yeast androgen screen [YAS]; and genotoxicity assay [umu/SOS]) combined with chemical analysis. The results demonstrated the presence of estrogenic, anti‐estrogenic, and anti‐androgenic activity in most industrial effluents, whereas no androgenic activities were detected in all of the effluents. The measured estrogenic activities expressed as estradiol equivalent concentrations (EEQs) ranged from below detection (3 of 26 samples) to 40.7 ng/L, with a mean of 7.33 ng/L in all effluents. A good linear relationship was found between the EEQs measured by YES bioassay and the EEQs calculated from chemical concentrations. These detected estrogenic compounds, such as 4‐nonylphenol and estrone, were responsible for the estrogenic activities in the effluents. The genotoxic effects expressed as benzo[a]pyrene equivalent concentrations (BaP EQs) varied between below detection and 88.2 µg/L, with a mean of 8.76 µg/L in all effluents. The target polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were minor contributors to the genotoxicity in the effluents, and some nontarget compounds in the effluents were responsible for the measured genotoxicity. In terms of estrogenic activities and genotoxicity, discharge of these effluents could pose high risks to aquatic organisms in the receiving environments. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 2012;31:1273–1282. © 2012 SETAC

Evaluation of genotoxic effects of surface waters using a battery of bioassays indicating different mode of action

“…Similarly, Fang et al (2012) evaluated the genotoxicity of wastewaters from various industries using the SOS/umu test combined with target chemical analyses; they concluded that the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) detected were only a minor contributor to the genotoxicity of the samples and that some nontarget compounds in the effluents were responsible. Actually, in previous studies, a variety of genotoxic compounds, not limited to the ones selected in this study, were detected in the water (Bu et al, 2013(Bu et al, , 2015.…”

Raw and biologically treated paper mill wastewater effluents and the recipient surface waters: Cytotoxic and genotoxic activity and the presence of endocrine disrupting compounds

“…It is not uncommon that effluents after the wastewater treatment retain genotoxic activity (Lindström-Seppä et al, 1998;Žegura et al, 2009;Xavier et al, 2011;Fang et al, 2012;Vincent-Hubert et al, 2012). According to Lindström-Seppä et al (1998) the toxic activity of paper mill wastewaters is reduced by chemical treatment, but not by biological purification, while mutagenic activity is efficiently reduced during both chemical and Table 6 The mutagenic activity of raw and biologically treated Paper mill A effluents and recipient surface waters determined with the Ames MPF™ 98/100 Aqua assay on S. typhimurium without and with metabolic activation (S9).…”

“…For the description of sampling locations, see Table 1 the two paper mills reduced cell viability by N 25% or induced increase in β-galactosidase activity for N1.5-fold above the control, indicating that all samples were negative in this assay (Supplementary material Tables S1 and S2). Paper mill effluents and recipient surface waters have been reported to be genotoxic in the SOS/umuC assay (Rao et al, 1995;Fang et al, 2012); however, in these studies concentrated water samples, suspended particulate matter or extracts from sediments or organisms were tested. In the Ames MPF™ 98/100 Aqua assay Paper mill A effluents were not mutagenic ( Table 6).…”

Understanding the implications of dissolved organic carbon when assessing antagonism in vitro: An example with an estrogen receptor assay

“…Ihara et al, 2014;Rao et al, 2014) and this has been attributed to a range of factors from the presence of industrial compounds (e.g. Fang et al, 2012) to potential matrix effects from organic matter (e.g. Conroy et al, 2007).…”