Heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are, together with their un-substituted analogues, widely distributed throughout all environmental compartments. While fate and effects of homocyclic PAHs are well-understood, there are still data gaps concerning the ecotoxicology of heterocyclic PAHs: Only few publications are available investigating these substances using in vitro bioassays. Here, we present a study focusing on the identification and quantification of clastogenic and aneugenic effects in the micronucleus assay with the fish liver cell line RTL-W1 that was originally derived from rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Real concentrations of the test items after incubation without cells were determined to assess chemical losses due to, e.g., sorption or volatilization, by means of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We were able to show genotoxic effects for six compounds that have not been reported in vertebrate systems before. Out of the tested substances, 2,3-dimethylbenzofuran, benzothiophene, quinoline and 6-methylquinoline did not cause substantial induction of micronuclei in the cell line. Acridine caused the highest absolute induction. Carbazole, acridine and dibenzothiophene were the most potent substances compared with 4-nitroquinoline oxide, a well characterized genotoxicant with high potency used as standard. Dibenzofuran was positive in our investigation and tested negative before in a mammalian system. Chemical losses during incubation ranged from 29.3% (acridine) to 91.7% (benzofuran) and may be a confounding factor in studies without chemical analyses, leading to an underestimation of the real potency. The relative potency of the investigated substances was high compared with their un-substituted PAH analogues, only the latter being typically monitored as priority or indicator pollutants. Hetero-PAHs are widely distributed in the environment and even more mobile, e.g. in ground water, than homocyclic PAHs due to the higher water solubility. We conclude that this substance class poses a high risk to water quality and should be included in international monitoring programs.

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Hydroxylation of polyaromatic compounds through cytochromes P450 (CYPs) is known to result in potentially estrogenic transformation products. Recently, there has been an increasing awareness of the importance of alternative pathways such as aldehyde oxidases (AOX) or Nmethyltransferases (NMT) in bioactivation of small molecules, particularly N-heterocycles. Therefore, this study investigated the biotransformation and activity of methylated quinolines, a class of environmentally relevant N-heterocycles that are no native ligands of the estrogen receptor (ER), in the estrogenresponsive cell line ERα CALUX. We found that this widely used cell line overexpresses AOXs and NMTs while having low expression of CYP enzymes. Exposure of ERα CALUX cells to quinolines resulted in estrogenic effects, which could be mitigated using an inhibitor of AOX/NMTs. No such mitigation occurred after coexposure to a CYP1A inhibitor. A number of N-methylated but no hydroxylated transformation products were detected using liquid chromatography−mass spectrometry, which indicated that biotransformations to estrogenic metabolites were likely catalyzed by NMTs. Compared to the natural ER ligand 17β-estradiol, the products formed during the metabolization of quinolines were weak to moderate agonists of the human ERα. Our findings have potential implications for the risk assessment of these compounds and indicate that care must be taken when using in vitro estrogenicity assays, for example, ERα CALUX, for the characterization of N-heterocycles or environmental samples that may contain them.

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