Effects of Perfluoro Organic Compound Toxicity on Nematode Caenorhabditis elegans Fecundity

Abstract

Toxicity studies using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) as a model organism have shown that perfluoro organic compounds have sub-lethal toxicity at the 10 pM-100 nM range on multi-generation assays. We examined the acute lethal toxicity and multi-generational sublethal toxicity (fecundity and reproduction) of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and salts of perfluoro-1-octansulfonic acid (PFOS) using 1.7% agar Nematode Growth Medium (NGM) plates. The fluorine compounds affected the fecundity of C. elegans at concentrations 105- to 108-fold lower than the median effective concentrations (EC50). In particular, worm abundance during the first generation did not differ significantly from controls, while in contrast, the number of worms in the fourth generation at 10 pM PFOS-tetraethylammonium (TEA) decreased significantly to about 50% of control (p < 0.01) and the number of eggs and worms in the fourth generation at 1 nM PFNA decreased significantly to about 30% of control (p < 0.01). However, no dose-response relationship was observed in this study. We confirmed that perfluoro organic compounds strongly disrupt fecundity in C. elegans.