In the present study, we developed a multicompartmental
toxicokinetic
model for two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (phenanthrene and anthracene)
in their deuterated form (PAHs-d
10) in
zebrafish considering continuous waterborne uptake and discrete dietary
uptake. We quantified the bioconcentration, bioaccumulation, and depuration
of these two PAHs-d
10 in zebrafish, and
then estimated the kinetic parameters by fitting the model into the
experimental data. The experimental and fitting results both showed
that there was a peak concentration in each compartment of zebrafish
after every dietary uptake, while the peak value depended on the ingestion
amount of the PAH-d
10 and varied among
different compartments. The PAH-d
10 amount
in the blood reached 20–27% of the total amount bioaccumulated
in zebrafish at steady-state, followed by skin (20–26%), and
fillet (16–22%). The rank of PAH-d
10 steady-state concentrations in each compartment showed inconsistency
with its lipid contents, indicating that the distribution of the PAHs-d
10 in zebrafish was not merely affected by the
lipid content in each compartment, but also affected by their kinetics
and biotransformation. This study suggests that discrete dietary uptake
caused by intermittent food ingestion significantly affects the bioaccumulation
of PAHs in fish. Further studies are needed to investigate such effect
on other toxicants that are more resistant to biotransformation than
PAHs in fish.