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Rapid Assessment Bioaccumulation Screening: Utilizing Surface Water to Assess Bioaccumulation & Health Outcomes for Emerging PFAS Mixtures that Lack Analytical Standards (Society of Toxicology)
Citation:
Bangma, Jackie, T. Jackson, J. McCord, A. Robuck, Izak Hill, B. Clark, M. McNamara, M. Cashman, Y. Rericha, T. Burke, C. Heyder, A. Champagne, C. Lau, K. Das, D. Jenkins-Hill, K. O'Shaughnessy, A. Sasser, R. Grindstaff, D. Macmillan, AND L. Wehmas. Rapid Assessment Bioaccumulation Screening: Utilizing Surface Water to Assess Bioaccumulation & Health Outcomes for Emerging PFAS Mixtures that Lack Analytical Standards (Society of Toxicology). 2025 Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL, March 16 - 20, 2025.
Impact/Purpose:
This poster will help foster scientific discussion and collaboration regarding PFAS mixtures and studies needed for PFAS that lack available analytical standards.
Description:
Emerging per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) identified in environmental matrices often lack commercially available standards. Analytical grade standards are necessary for quantitative research approaches for assessing health outcomes, bioaccumulation potential, and dose-response toxicological endpoints. However, the sheer number of emerging PFAS being identified, combined with challenges of chemical synthesis, impedes the ability to prioritize and synthesize PFAS for studies. To overcome the lack of individual analytical standards, we propose an in vivo design to investigate the bioaccumulation potentials and adverse health effects of environmentally relevant mixtures of emerging PFAS which in turn will facilitate chemical prioritization. Specifically, bioaccumulation is a key metric that can help prioritize PFAS for synthesis as increased bioaccumulation in vivo may indicate higher potential for toxic effects due to greater uptake and longer residence time in tissues. This study used weak-anion exchange to concentrate hundreds of liters of industrially impacted surface water containing a complex mixture of novel PFAS from a New Jersey PFAS manufacturer. Male CD-1 mice were dosed once daily by oral gavage for 7 days with concentrated surface water extract in 2% Tween 80 solution at 100X, 300X, 500X and 1000X (n=6/group) of the original surface concentration, as well as a vehicle control (DI water and Tween 80). After a 24-hour depuration, serum, liver, and brain were collected for analysis using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) nontarget analysis (NTA) to characterize emerging PFAS and obtain pseudo bioaccumulation factors (BAFpsuedo). Both legacy and emerging PFAS were identified in the surface water extract. Twelve emerging PFAS were subsequently detected in liver, with notable dose-dependent increases in mouse tissues.To determine whether exposure to the concentrated surface water resulted in adverse health outcomes, sensitive endpoints of PFAS toxicity, including body and tissue weight, thyroid hormone assessment, hepatic nuclear receptor target gene expression, and serum/liver metabolomics were assessed. Health effects were noted on multiple endpoints at all doses examined. The RABS study format allows the investigation of PFAS mixtures for which commercial standards are not available, and this study demonstrates the feasibility of using this design to measure bioaccumulation and health effects of complex environmental mixtures.