Effects of mixture of pharmaceuticals on early life stages of tench (Tinca tinca).

Vlasta Stancova,Miroslav Prokes,Misa Skoric,Lucie Plhalova,Zdenka Svobodova,Jana Blahova,Petr Marsalek,Marta Bartoskova,Dana Zivna

doi:10.1155/2014/253468

Vlasta Stancova, Miroslav Prokes + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/253468

Copy DOI

Abstract

Ubiquitous occurrence of pharmaceuticals in aquatic environment results in concern about potential adverse the effects on nontarget organisms. In water, drugs are present in complex mixtures, in which complicated interactions affect toxicity of single components. The purpose of this study was to examine effect of 35-day-long exposure to mixture of ibuprofen, diclofenac, and carbamazepine on the mortality, growth, early ontogeny, and histopathological changes in tench (Tinca tinca). Early life stage toxicity test was carried out using a modified protocol according to OECD guideline 210. Exposure to mixture of pharmaceuticals at concentration of 60 μg·L−1 for each substance was associated with significant increase in mortality, as well as significant increase in growth and elevated incidence of malformations. Any of the tested concentrations resulted in histopathological changes of liver, kidney, skin, or gill. After fourteen days of exposure there was short-term delay of development related to increased concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the mixture (2, 20, and 60 μg·L−1). Environmentally relevant concentrations (0.02; and 0.2 μg·L−1) used in this experiment did not result in toxic impairment of tench.

Highlights

Human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and their metabolites belong due to their overproduction and indiscriminate usage to ubiquitous environmental contaminants present in the ground and surface waters at a magnitude of ng⋅L−1 to μg⋅L−1 [1]
Our work mainly focused on the growth parameters, histopathology, early ontogeny, incidence of malformations and mortality of embryos, and larval stages in tench affected by mixture of pharmaceuticals
Our laboratory experiment was carried out using test solutions containing mixture of ibuprofen (IBU), diclofenac sodium salt (DCF), and carbamazepine (CBZ) as test substances (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Human and veterinary pharmaceuticals and their metabolites belong due to their overproduction and indiscriminate usage to ubiquitous environmental contaminants present in the ground and surface waters at a magnitude of ng⋅L−1 to μg⋅L−1 [1]. Removal efficiencies for ibuprofen and diclofenac are high 65–100 and 30–100%, respectively; they are still ubiquitous and are present at considerable concentrations in river waters [7,8,9,10]. This could be due to the fact that their concentrations in the inlets are so high that the remains in the effluents are still significant [11]. Carbamazepine is relatively lipophilic, with an octanol/water partition coefficient of 2.2, and is consistently found at relatively high concentrations in aquatic environment This compound was proposed as a suitable anthropogenic marker of urban effluents [12].

Objectives

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion