Quantitative analysis of aberrant fatty acid composition of zebrafish hepatic lipids induced by organochlorine pesticide using stable isotope-coded transmethylation and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Organochlorine pesticides have been extensively used worldwide for agricultural purposes. Due to their resistance to metabolism, a major public health concern has been raised. Aberrant hepatic lipid composition has been a hallmark of many liver diseases associated with exposure to various toxins and chemicals. And thus lots of efforts have been focused on the development of analytical techniques that can rapidly and quantitatively determine the changes in fatty acid composition of hepatic lipids. In this work, changes in fatty acid composition of hepatic lipids in response to DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) exposure were quantitatively analyzed by a gas chromatography-mass spectrometric approach based on stable isotope-coded transmethylation. It has been quantitatively demonstrated that polyunsaturated fatty acids including C20:3n3, C20:4n6, and C22:6n3 decrease in response to DDT exposure. However, saturated long chain fatty acids including C16:0, C18:0, as well as monounsaturated long chain fatty acid C18:1n9 consistently increase in a DDT-concentration-dependent manner. In particular, much higher changes in the level of hepatic C16:0 and C18:0 for male fish were observed than that for female fish. These experimental results are in accordance with qualitative histopathological analysis that revealed liver morphological alterations. The stable isotope-coded mass spectrometric approach provides a reliable means for investigating hepatotoxicity associated with fatty acid synthesis, desaturation, mitochondrial beta-oxidation, and lipid mobilization. It should be useful in elucidation of hepatotoxic mechanisms and safety assessment of environmental toxins.