The rapid development of nanotechnology and the increased use of nanomaterials in products used in everyday life have raised the question of the potential release of nanoparticles into the aquatic environment. Their fate and effects in natural ecosystems are not currently well understood but harmful effects of nanoparticles have been demonstrated at low concentrations on some freshwater and marine species. Cerium dioxide nanoparticles (CeO NPs) are produced in large quantities and used in products in many different fields, such as automotives or optics. Because of their widespread use in daily products, CeO NPs are included in the OECD priority list of manufactured nanomaterials for human and environmental assessment. Indeed some studies have been conducted to assay various enzymatic biomarkers, which showed the CeO NPs potential to modify anti-oxidative defenses and cellular membrane stability. Nevertheless, only a few studies were performed on their genotoxic potential. The aim of this work was to evaluate the genotoxic and physiological effects of CeO NPs on a widespread freshwater bivalve Corbicula fluminea by using comet assay and a multi-enzymatic biomarker approach. Exposure to two CeO NP concentrations during a short term experiment (6 days) was set up. The first one (10 μg/L) was chosen in order to work with low but measurable concentrations whereas the second one was ten times higher (100 μg CeO NPs/L). DNA damage was significantly more pronounced compared with control for both concentrations tested as early as two days of exposure and seemed to increase with time. Some enzymatic biomarkers of anti-oxidative defenses (total antioxidant capacity, catalase activity), anti-toxic mechanisms (glutathione-S-transferase activity, caspase-3 activity) or metabolism (lactate dehydrogenase activity) tended to increase after 6 days of exposure but only the induction of caspase pathway and DNA damages appeared significant for exposed organisms. In this study, time and concentration effects of CeO NPs were highlighted by coupling genotoxic and cellular biomarker assessments.

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