Abstract
Little information exists about the evaluation of potential developmental immunotoxicity induced by perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), a synthetic persistent and increasingly ubiquitous environmental contaminant. To assess potential sex-specific impacts of PFOS on immunological health in the offspring, using male and female C57BL/6 mice, pups were evaluated for developmental immunotoxic effects after maternal oral exposure to PFOS (0.1, 1.0 and 5.0 mg PFOS/kg/day) during Gestational Days 1–17. Spontaneous TH1/TH2-type cytokines, serum levels of testosterone and estradiol were evaluated in F1 pups at four and eight weeks of age. The study showed that male pups were more sensitive to the effects of PFOS than female pups. At eight weeks of age, an imbalance in TH1/TH2-type cytokines with excess TH2 cytokines (IL-4) was found only in male pups. As for hormone levels, PFOS treatment in utero significantly decreased serum testosterone levels and increased estradiol levels only in male pups, and a significant interaction between sex and PFOS was observed for serum testosterone at both four weeks of age (pinteraction = 0.0049) and eight weeks of age (pinteraction = 0.0227) and for estradiol alternation at four weeks of age (pinteraction = 0.0351). In conclusion, testosterone-mediated endocrine function may be partially involved in the TH1/TH2 imbalance induced by PFOS, and these deficits are detectable among both young and adult mice and may affect males more than females.
Highlights
As a persistent organic pollutant (POP), the artificial fluorosurfactant perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS; CF3(CF2)7SO3−) was added to Annex B of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2009 due to its near-ubiquitous distribution in the environment and a potential for negative effects on human health [1]
There were no significant differences in body mass among male and female offspring in the treatment groups at either four or eight weeks of age (Table 1)
The findings confirmed our hypothesis that innate and humoral immune responses were altered in offspring, and male pups may be more sensitive to PFOS than female pups
Summary
As a persistent organic pollutant (POP), the artificial fluorosurfactant perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS; CF3(CF2)7SO3−) was added to Annex B of the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants in 2009 due to its near-ubiquitous distribution in the environment and a potential for negative effects on human health [1]. PFOS is extremely stable, thermally, biologically and chemically, and possesses hydro- and lipo-phobic characteristics that let products coated in them repel oil and water and resist staining [3,4]. This combination of extreme resistance to degradation makes PFOS detectable throughout the entire ecosystem, including animals, human, air, water and sediment [5,6,7,8], even in places as remote as the Arctic [9]. The mean level of daily PFOS exposure ranges from 1.6 to 8.8 ng/kg (body weight) in adults in some Western populations [11].
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