A cell-culture based lipidomics approach to assess the biological impact of exposure to environmental surface waters
Citation:
Zhen, H., D. Ekman, Tim Collette, Dan Villeneuve, G. Ankley, P. Bradley, AND Q. Teng. A cell-culture based lipidomics approach to assess the biological impact of exposure to environmental surface waters. Metabolomics 2018, Seattle, WA, June 24 - 28, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presented at the 14th International Conference of the Metabolomics Society in Seattle, WA, June 24-28, 2018
Description:
Environmental surface waters often contain a variety of chemical contaminants from different sources including wastewater treatment plants, concentrated animal feeding operations, agricultural runoff and other human-related activities. Exposure to these contaminants may pose a threat to the health of humans and wildlife (e.g. fish). We have reported the use of cell-culture based exposures in monitoring the ecotoxicological effects of chemicals in the aquatic environment. Our previous focus has been mainly on changes in polar and semi-polar metabolites (i.e. the metabolome) following exposure. Here, we extend this approach by focusing on changes in endogenous lipophilic compounds (i.e. the lipidome) of cells in response to contaminant exposure. Two human cell lines (HepG2 and LN229) and one fish cell line (ZFL) were exposed to surface water collected from 8 streams nationwide. These sites were selected from a larger study encompassing 38 sites that cover a variety of land-use types and contamination statuses. After a 48-hr exposure, the lipidome of control and exposed cells was profiled with Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography coupled to a Q-Exactive Orbitrap Mass Spectrometer (Thermo Scientific). We analyzed the perturbed pathways of lipid metabolism and identified potential biomarkers following exposure to environmental contaminants. In addition, we used partial least-squares regression models to explore covariances among measured chemicals in the surface waters and the lipidomics dataset, providing insights into ecological impacts and thus determining potential relevance of environmental contaminants.
