Measurement and prediction of bioconcentration factors of organophosphate flame retardants in common carp (Cyprinus carpio)

Abstract

The increase in the production and usage plus the toxicity nature of organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs) has become a concern. However, limited information is available about the bioaccumulation potential of OPFRs in fish. In this study, we determined the 96 h LC50 s, and evaluated the bioaccumulation potential of six most frequently reported OPFRs in gill, kidney, liver, and muscle tissues of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) for 48 d, and a quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model was developed to predict bioconcentration factors (BCFs) for the remaining 16 OPFRs. The BCFs and half-lives (t1/2) in the tissues ranged from 6.54 (Tris (2-chloroisopropyl) phosphate, (TCPP)) to 528.15 (Tris (2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEHP)), and 2.25–5.78 days, respectively. The tissue-specific concentration and BCFs values followed the order of liver > kidney ≥ intestine >> muscle. The proposed QSAR model with a high cross-validated value (Q2(cum)) of 0.930 and a correlation coefficient of 0.94 was obtained and was able to predict log BCF from parameters related to molar volume and isotropic average static field polarizability. The results show that the model has a high level of accuracy, making the proposed approach a suitable method for predicting the log BCF.