Toxicological effect of single contaminants and contaminant mixtures associated with plant ingredients in novel salmon feeds

Increasing use of plant feed ingredients may introduce contaminants not previously associated with farming of salmonids, such as pesticides and PAHs from environmental sources or from thermal processing of oil seeds. To screen for interaction effects of contaminants newly introduced in salmon feeds, Atlantic salmon primary hepatocytes were used. The xCELLigence cytotoxicity system was used to select optimal dosages of the PAHs benzo(a)pyrene and phenanthrene, the pesticides chlorpyrifos and endosulfan, and combinations of these. NMR and MS metabolic profiling and microarray transcriptomic profiling was used to identify novel biomarkers. Lipidomic and transcriptomic profiling suggested perturbation of lipid metabolism, as well as endocrine disruption. The pesticides gave the strongest responses, despite having less effect on cell viability than the PAHs. Only weak molecular responses were detected in PAH-exposed hepatocytes. Chlorpyrifos suppressed the synthesis of unsaturated fatty acids. Endosulfan affected steroid hormone synthesis, while benzo(a)pyrene disturbed vitamin D3 metabolism. The primary mixture effect was additive, although at high concentrations the pesticides acted in a synergistic fashion to decrease cell viability and down-regulate CYP3A and FABP4 transcription. This work highlights the usefulness of 'omics techniques and multivariate data analysis to investigate interactions within mixtures of contaminants with different modes of action

Modeling the toxicity of dissolved crude oil exposures to characterize the sensitivity of cod (Gadus morhua) larvae and role of individual and unresolved hydrocarbons

Toxicity of weathered oil was investigated using Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) larvae. A novel exposure system was applied to differentiate effects associated with dissolved and droplet oil with and without dispersant. After a 4-day exposure and subsequent 4-day recovery period, survival and growth were determined. Analytical data characterizing test oil composition included polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) based on GC/MS and unresolved hydrocarbon classes obtained by two-dimensional chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection was used as input to an oil solubility model to calculate toxic units (TUs) of dissolved PAHs and whole oil, respectively. Critical target lipid body burdens derived from modeling characterizing the sensitivity of effect endpoints investigated were consistent across treatments and within the range previously reported for pelagic species. Individually measured PAHs captured only 3–11% of the TUs associated with the whole oil highlighting the limitations of traditional total PAH exposure metrics for expressing oil toxicity data.acceptedVersio