TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigation of animal and algal bioassays for reliable saxitoxin ecotoxicity and cytotoxicity risk evaluation
AU - Perreault, François
AU - Seleme Matias, Marcelo
AU - Pedroso Melegari, Silvia
AU - de Carvalho Pinto, Catia Regina Silva
AU - Ekué Creppy, Edmond
AU - Popovic, Radovan
AU - Gerson Matias, William
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico eTecnológico (CNPq, Brazil) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC, Canada) grants awarded to W.G. Matias and R. Popovic, respectively. F. Perreault was supported by a NSERC PhD fellowship. S.P. Melegari is thankful for her fellowship in the Laboratory of Toxicology, University of Bordeaux 2 (France).
PY - 2011/5
Y1 - 2011/5
N2 - Contamination of water bodies by saxitoxin can result in various toxic effects in aquatic organisms. Saxitoxin contamination has also been shown to be a threat to human health in several reported cases, even resulting in death. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity of animal (Neuro-2A) and algal (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) bioassays to saxitoxin effect. Neuro-2A cells were found to be sensitive to saxitoxin, as shown by a 24. h EC50 value of 1.5. nM, which was obtained using a cell viability assay. Conversely, no saxitoxin effect was found in any of the algal biomarkers evaluated, for the concentration range tested (2-128. nM). These results indicate that saxitoxin may induce toxic effects in animal and human populations at concentrations where phytoplankton communities are not affected. Therefore, when evaluating STX risk of toxicity, algal bioassays do not appear to be reliable indicators and should always be conducted in combination with animal bioassays.
AB - Contamination of water bodies by saxitoxin can result in various toxic effects in aquatic organisms. Saxitoxin contamination has also been shown to be a threat to human health in several reported cases, even resulting in death. In this study, we evaluated the sensitivity of animal (Neuro-2A) and algal (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii) bioassays to saxitoxin effect. Neuro-2A cells were found to be sensitive to saxitoxin, as shown by a 24. h EC50 value of 1.5. nM, which was obtained using a cell viability assay. Conversely, no saxitoxin effect was found in any of the algal biomarkers evaluated, for the concentration range tested (2-128. nM). These results indicate that saxitoxin may induce toxic effects in animal and human populations at concentrations where phytoplankton communities are not affected. Therefore, when evaluating STX risk of toxicity, algal bioassays do not appear to be reliable indicators and should always be conducted in combination with animal bioassays.
KW - Bioassay
KW - Chlamydomonas reinhardtii
KW - Cytotoxicity
KW - Ecotoxicity
KW - Neuro-2A
KW - Saxitoxin
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2011.01.016
DO - 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2011.01.016
M3 - Article
C2 - 21339005
AN - SCOPUS:79955552913
SN - 0147-6513
VL - 74
SP - 1021
EP - 1026
JO - Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
JF - Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
IS - 4
ER -