AI Article Synopsis

  • PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are widespread environmental pollutants that accumulate in marine mammals, including bottlenose dolphins, leading to potential health concerns.
  • Researchers developed an immortalized cell line from dolphin skin to study how different PFAS compounds affect cell viability and the cell cycle by analyzing nuclear morphometry and phase distributions.
  • Findings showed that exposure to PFOS, PFBS, and PFBA increased cells in the G0+G1 phase, decreased cells in the S and M phases, and reduced the prevalence of senescent cells, indicating possible tumorigenic effects, while C6O4 did not cause significant changes.

Article Abstract

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have become ubiquitous environmental contaminants in aquatic ecosystems worldwide. Marine mammals, as top predators, are constantly exposed to several PFAS compounds that accumulate in different tissues. As a proxy to assess cytotoxicity of PFAS in the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), we generated a new immortalized cell line derived from skin samples of bottlenose dolphin. Using high content imaging, we assessed the effects of increasing concentrations of PFOS, PFOA, PFBS, PFBA and C6O4 on cell viability and cell cycle phases. In particular, we classified all cells based on multiple morphometric differences of the nucleus in three populations, named respectively "Normal" (nuclei in G0, S and M phase); "Large" (nuclei showing characteristics of senescence) and "Small" (nuclei with fragmentation and condensed chromatin). Combining this approach with cell cycle analysis we determined which phases of the cell cycle were influenced by PFAS. The results revealed that the presence of PFOS, PFBS and PFBA could increase the number of cells in G0+G1 phase and decrease the number of those in the S phase. Moreover, PFOS and PFBS lowered the fraction of cells in the M phase. Interestingly PFOS, PFBS and PFBA reduced the prevalence of the senescence phenotype ("large" nuclei), suggesting a potential tumorigenic effect. Besides, the presence of PFOS and PFBS correlated also with a significant decrease in the number of "small" nuclei. The C6O4 exposure did not highlighted morphometric alteration or cell cycle modification bottlenose dolphin skin cell nuclei. While the effects of PFAS on cell cycle was clear, no significant change was detected either in term of cell proliferation or of viability. This study fosters the overall knowledge on the cellular effects of perfluoroalkyl substances in marine mammals.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoenv.2022.113980DOI Listing

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