Estrogen-, androgen- and aryl hydrocarbon receptor mediated activities in passive and composite samples from municipal waste and surface waters

Abstract

Passive and composite sampling in combination with in vitro bioassays and identification and quantification of individual chemicals were applied to characterize pollution by compounds with several specific modes of action in urban area in the basin of two rivers, with 400,000 inhabitants and a variety of industrial activities. Two types of passive samplers, semipermeable membrane devices (SPMD) for hydrophobic contaminants and polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) for polar compounds such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals, were used to sample wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent and effluent as well as rivers upstream and downstream of the urban complex and the WWTP. Compounds with endocrine disruptive potency were detected in river water and WWTP influent and effluent. Year-round, monthly assessment of waste waters by bioassays documented estrogenic, androgenic and dioxin-like potency as well as cytotoxicity in influent waters of the WWTP and allowed characterization of seasonal variability of these biological potentials in waste waters. The WWTP effectively removed cytotoxic compounds, xenoestrogens and xenoandrogens. There was significant variability in treatment efficiency of dioxin-like potency. The study indicates that the WWTP, despite its up-to-date technology, can contribute endocrine disrupting compounds to the river. Riverine samples exhibited dioxin-like, antiestrogenic and antiandrogenic potencies. The study design enabled characterization of effects of the urban complex and the WWTP on the river. Concentrations of PAHs and contaminants and specific biological potencies sampled by POCIS decreased as a function of distance from the city.

Development of a bioanalytical test battery for water quality monitoring: Fingerprinting identified micropollutants and their contribution to effects in surface water

“…Therefore, ER reporter gene assays were a prominent component of the test battery in this study and we included assays using human and fish cell lines. Furthermore, surface water samples have also been shown to inhibit the androgen receptor (AR) (Escher et al 2014, Jálová et al 2013. Given the high relevance of hormone receptors, we added three transgenic assays that have been developed in recent years to assess hormone-mediated effects in early lifestage organisms (Brion et al 2012, Fini et al 2007, Spirhanzlova et al 2016.…”

Integrating chemical analysis and bioanalysis to evaluate the contribution of wastewater effluent on the micropollutant burden in small streams

“…The complementary approach of chemical analysis and bioanalysis has been applied to monitor water quality and to evaluate WWTP and advanced water treatment plant efficiency (Creusot et al, 2014;Jálová et al, 2013;Margot et al, 2013;. Applying bioassays and chemical analysis in parallel overcomes the limitations associated with the individual approaches and can reveal the presence of potent undetected chemicals and identify chemicals that contribute to the observed effect (Escher and Leusch, 2012).…”

Improving Toxicity Assessment of Pesticide Mixtures: The Use of Polar Passive Sampling Devices Extracts in Microalgae Toxicity Tests

“…Most of the time bioassays using POCIS and Chemcatcher® extracts have been dealing with mixtures present in sewage effluents (Petty et al, 2004; Vermeirssen et al, 2005; Liscio et al, 2009; Balaam et al, 2010) but also with cocktails present in waters subjected to agricultural (Matthiessen et al, 2006) or diverse anthropogenic pressures (Creusot et al, 2010; Jarosova et al, 2012; Bargar et al, 2013; Jálová et al, 2013). PSD extracts were used to determine the toxic potential of different aqueous matrices, in particular to target pharmaceuticals, and more specifically endocrine disruptors.…”

“…PSD extracts were used to determine the toxic potential of different aqueous matrices, in particular to target pharmaceuticals, and more specifically endocrine disruptors. To this end, toxicity was determined using standard tests such as the yeast estrogen screen (YES; Petty et al, 2004; Vermeirssen et al, 2005; Matthiessen et al, 2006; Liscio et al, 2009; Balaam et al, 2010; Bargar et al, 2013) or other reporter gene assays (Creusot et al, 2010; Jarosova et al, 2012; Jálová et al, 2013). This new coupling introduced more environmental realism to ecotoxicological tests, and improved the relative understanding of the effective toxicity of mixtures of pollutants in the aquatic environment.…”