The Genetic Toxicity Of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS)

Perfluorooctane Sulphonate (PFOS), a common perfluorochemical, it was one ofthe most important chemical products in the20th century. Due to its stable andaccumulative nature, unique water and oil repellent properties, it is widely used inmany industrial and commercial applications, such as mechanical lubricant, pesticide,surface-active agent and textiles. PFOS not only is able to enter variousenvironmental media (air, water, soil), but also has been considered as a persistentorganic pollutant found in wild life and humans. It has high bioaccumulation andvariety of toxicity. Once PFOS enteres into the environment, it is difficult to bedegraded. There are ample of research indicate that PFOS can cause experimentalweight loss, lipid metabolism and obstacle of energy metabolization, embryonictoxicity and potential neurotoxicity for experimental animals. However, little hasbeen done to explore the genetic toxicity of PFOS.This research was aiming at studying the genetic toxicity and reproductivetoxicity of PFOS, in order to provide the basis for PFOS, by combining the cometassay, the micronucleus test and the chromosome aberration test of mouse primaryspermatocyte.The comet assay result indicated that, regardless of in vitro or in vivo, PFOScaused DNA damage of mice cells. The comet assay was used to detect the DNAdamage induced by PFOS at different doses. Compared with the dimethyl sulfoxide(DMSO) group, the DNA damages in groups treated with50,100mg/L of PFOS invitro were significantly different at marrow cells, spleen cells and the thymus cells.The results demonstrated that the groups treated with2.5,5mg/kg·bw of PFOS weresignificantly different compared with the DMSO group in vivo.The micronucleus test result indicated that, compared with the negative, theMN%values of the groups that treated with5mg/kg·bw of PFOS were different(p<0.05); the MN%values of the groups that treated with10mg/kg·bw of PFOS weresignificantly different (p<0.01). This indicated a significant dose-effect relationship. The chromosome aberration test of mouse primary spermatocyte showed that,compared with the negative, the aberration rate of the groups treated with5mg/kg·bwof PFOS was different (p<0.05), and the aberration rate of the group treated with10mg/kg·bw of PFOS was significantly different (p<0.01).Through the three experiments, result indicated that, PFOS has the genetictoxicity and reproductive toxicity. The comet assay result indicated that, whencompared with the negative, the groups treated with2.5mg/kg·bw of PFOS weresignificantly different. The micronucleus test and the chromosome aberration test ofmouse primary spermatocyte result indicated that, compared with the negative controlgroup, the aberration rate of the groups treated with5mg/kg·bw of PFOS wasdifferent. Through comparing the sensitivity of each kind of the experiment, resultindicated that the comet assay was more sensitive than the other two tests.