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Chronic zebrafish low dose decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209) exposure affected parental gonad development and locomotion in F1 offspring

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Abstract

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are widely used as flame retardants around the world. Because of large production volumes, widespread usage and persistence, PBDEs are now ubiquitous environmental pollutants detected in a wide variety of environment media and human samples and therefore pose a significant public health concern. Deca-PBDE (BDE-209) is the only commercial PBDE mixture still allowed for use at present, and has been recently detected at high levels in human samples. However, few studies explore its effect on development, reproduction or neurobehavior with animal models. In particular, studies with long-term chronic exposure at relatively low doses are lacking. In this study, we utilize the zebrafish model to explore the developmental, reproductive, and behavioral toxicities associated with long-term chronic exposure to deca-PBDE (BDE-209). Our findings revealed that long-term chronic exposure to low dose of deca-BDE (ranging from 0.001 to 1 μM) affected overall fitness (measured by condition factor), gonad development, male gamete quantity and quality in F0 parental fish. For F1 offspring without continuous exposure to BDE-209, parental BDE treatment led to delayed hatch and motor neuron development, loose muscle fiber, slow locomotion behavior in normal conditions, and hyperactivity when subjected to light–dark photoperiod stimulation. In conclusion, parental chronic low dose BDE-209 exposure not only affects F0 growth and reproduction, but also elicits neurobehavior alternations in F1 offspring.

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Acknowledgments

We thank S. Rodenburg for English editing. This work was supported by funding from the major project of Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province (2008C03001-2), the Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Z2080266), and the National Environmental Protection Public Welfare Science and Technology Research Program of China (200909089).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang Provincial Key Lab for Technology and Application of Model Organisms, Institute of Watershed Science and Environmental Ecology, Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, 325035, People’s Republic of China

    Jianhui He, Dongren Yang, Chunyan Wang, Wei Liu, Junhua Liao, Tao Xu, Chenglian Bai, Jiangfei Chen, Changjiang Huang & Qiaoxiang Dong

  2. School of Resources and Environmental Engineering, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Kuanfei Lin

  3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Risk Assessment and Control on Chemical Process, Shanghai, 200237, People’s Republic of China

    Kuanfei Lin

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  1. Jianhui He
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Correspondence to Changjiang Huang or Qiaoxiang Dong.

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He, J., Yang, D., Wang, C. et al. Chronic zebrafish low dose decabrominated diphenyl ether (BDE-209) exposure affected parental gonad development and locomotion in F1 offspring. Ecotoxicology 20, 1813–1822 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-011-0720-3

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