Implications of the solvent vehicles dimethylformamide and dimethylsulfoxide for establishing transcriptomic endpoints in the zebrafish embryo toxicity test
- Authors
- Turner, C., Sawle, A., Fenske, M., and Cossins, A.
- ID
- ZDB-PUB-120105-44
- Date
- 2012
- Source
- Environmental toxicology and chemistry 31(3): 593-604 (Journal)
- Registered Authors
- Cossins, Andy
- Keywords
- dimethylformamide, dimethylsulfoxide, zebrafish, gene expression, regulatory testing
- Datasets
- GEO:GSE32593
- MeSH Terms
-
- Animals
- Dimethyl Sulfoxide/metabolism
- Dimethyl Sulfoxide/toxicity*
- Dimethylformamide/metabolism
- Dimethylformamide/toxicity*
- Ecotoxicology
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/drug effects*
- Embryo, Nonmammalian/metabolism
- Environmental Monitoring/methods*
- Solvents/metabolism
- Solvents/toxicity*
- Toxicity Tests
- Transcriptome
- Water Pollutants, Chemical/metabolism
- Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicity*
- Zebrafish/embryology
- PubMed
- 22169935 Full text @ Environ. Toxicol. Chem.
- CTD
- 22169935
Current aquatic chemical testing guidelines recognize that solvents can potentially interfere with the organism or environmental conditions of aquatic ecotoxicity tests and therefore recommend concentration limits for their use. These recommendations are based on evidence of adverse solvent effects in apical level tests. The growing importance of sub-apical and chronic endpoints in future test strategies, however, suggests the limits may need re-assessment. To address this concern, microarrays were used to determine the effects of organic solvents, dimethylformamide (DMF), and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO), upon the transcriptome of zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos. Embryos were exposed for 48 h to a range of concentrations between 0.025 to 32.0 ml/L. Effects on survival and development after 24 and 48 h were assessed microscopically with no effects on mortality or morphology up to 2.0 and 16.0 ml/L for DMF and DMSO. However, analysis of 48-h embryonic RNA revealed large numbers of differentially expressed genes at concentrations well below the 0.1 ml/L solvent limit level. The enrichment of differentially expressed genes was found for metabolic, development and other key biological processes, some of which could be linked to observed morphological effects at higher solvent concentrations. These findings emphasise the need to remove or lower as far as possible, the concentrations of solvent carriers in ecotoxicology tests.