Exploiting lipid-free tubing passive samplers and embryonic zebrafish to link site specific contaminant mixtures to biological responses

Abstract

The BRIDGES (Biological Response Indicator Devices Gauging Environmental Stressors) bio-analytical tool was developed in response to the need for a quantitative technology for assessing the toxicity of environmentally relevant contaminant mixtures. This tool combines passive samplers with the embryonic zebrafish model. When applied in an urban river it effectively linked site specific, bioavailable contaminant mixtures to multiple biological responses. Embryonic zebrafish exposed to extracts from lipid-free passive samplers that were deployed at five locations, within and outside of the Portland Harbor Superfund Megasite, displayed different responses. Six of the eighteen biological responses observed in 941 exposed zebrafish were significantly different between sites. This demonstrates the sensitivity of the bio-analytical tool for detecting spatially distinct toxicity in aquatic systems; bridging environmental exposure to biological response.

The influences of parental diet and vitamin E intake on the embryonic zebrafish transcriptome

“…The zebrafish model is growing in popularity and is being used as a model to study human-related conditions, including: neurological disorders (Patton and Zon, 2001; Dambly-Chaudiere et al, 2003; Kokel et al, 2010; Rinkwitz et al, 2011; Becker and Rinkwitz, 2012), addiction (Petzold et al, 2009;Webb et al, 2009), disease treatment/drug development (Shin and Fishman, 2002; Lieschke and Currie, 2007; Mathew et al, 2007; Delvecchio et al, 2011; Truong et al, 2011) and gene–environment interactions (Hillwalker et al, 2010). The zebrafish model is becoming a prevalent model because the developmental processes are well conserved with other vertebrates, including humans (Gilbert, 2010).…”

Bridging environmental mixtures and toxic effects

“…Differences in toxicity between the sites, including those that are located very close to one another on the river, were observed in a prior study [4]. The sites at RMs 7W, 7E and 6.5W are all located within 0.5 km of each other.…”

“…Additionally, a metric was applied to assess the overall toxicity of the PSD extracts to zebrafish embryos. This methodology proved to be effective for assessing general toxicity in prior work, but can overlook subtle differences in toxicity, such as specific outcomes associated with certain samples [4]. Each embryo was assigned a score from 0–1; 0 indicates an embryo that had normal development, 1 indicates death at 24 hours, 0.95 is assigned to death at 5 dpf and each sub-lethal endpoint is 0.045 so that the sum of all 19 sub-lethal outcomes is 0.855.…”

“…Furthermore, significant differences in contaminant levels [23, 28] and toxicity [4] have been observed on reduced spatial and temporal scales. This necessitates the application of methods capable of providing highly resolved, site-specific information, which is a demonstrated advantage of the BRIDGES bioanalytical tool [4]. …”

Alternate glucocorticoid receptor ligand binding structures influence outcomes in an in vivo tissue regeneration model

“…Zebrafish ( Danio rerio ) embryos (5D strain) (Hillwalker et al, 2010) were obtained from a breeding colony and raised using standard husbandry procedures for all the experiments (Westerfield, 1993, 2000). Caudal fins of 2 day post fertilization (2 dpf) larvae were amputated as previously described (Poss et al, 2002; Andreasen et al, 2006; Mathew et al, 2006) and chemical screening was performed based on our previously described in vivo larval regeneration assay protocol (Mathew et al, 2007).…”