Toxicological Study On BTEX To Apostichopus Japonicus

In this paper, the typical toxic pollutants BTEX (benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, m-xylene, p-xylene and o-xylene) in marine environment were selected as the target pollutants and Apostichopus japonicus were used as test organisms. The acute toxicity and sublethal effect of BTEX to Apostichopus japonicus at96h was investigated. Meanwhile, the effects of different concentrations of BTEX on the immune indices of Apostichopus japonicus were also tested.The volatilization rates of BTEX in sea water indicated that these compounds volatilized completely in10h, and volatilization rates of them were as following benzene> toluene> ethylbenzene> m-xylene>p-xylene> o-xylene. For the acute toxicity of BETX to Apostichopus japonicus, xylene exhibited highest toxicity and benzene had lowest toxicity. And the acute toxicities of them were as following p-xylene>m-xylene>o-xylene>ethylbenzene> toluene>benzene.The half lethal concentration of BTEX (LC50) was benzene101.61mg/L, toluene58.28mg/L, ethylbenzene43.42mg/L,1,2-xylene34.58mg/L,1,3-xylene27.19mg/L, and1,4-xylene20.25mg/L.To investigate the effect of BTEX on enzyme activity in the coelomic fluid of Apostichopus japonicus, the immune index including superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), myeloperoxidase (MPO), and the contents of total protein (TP) and lipid peroxidation product (MDA), acid phosphatase (ACP), alkaline phosphatase (AKP), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), acetylcholinesterase (CHE) were determined in this study. The results indicated that these enzymes showed different sensitivities with the increase of BTEX concentrations and time prolonged. Among them, MPO, MDA, ACP and CHE exhibited good time effect and measurement effect, which suggested that MPO, MDA, ACP and CHE might be used as biomarkers to evaluate the effects of BTEX on Apostichopus japonicus.