The combined effects of wood vinegar and perfluorooctanoic acid on enzymatic activities, DNA damage and gene transcription in Dugesia japonica

ABSTRACT

Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) has been identified widely in aquatic environments, while there are few reports detailing the environmental risk of wood vinegar (WV) on freshwater ecosystems. The freshwater planarians, Dugesia japonica, were used to evaluate the combined effects of PFOA and WV by examining the adverse influence of enzymatic activities, DNA damage and gene transcription on planarians. Compared with control and PFOA groups, the malonaldehyde content was lower in planarians treated with WV. In addition, WV enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes and mitochondrial enzymes, relieving the toxicity effects of PFOA. We also studied the genotoxicity of PFOA and WV on planarians using the comet assay. WV decreased the proportion of DNA in the tail and the olive tail moment. Furthermore, expression of gpx, gst and gr genes in planarians was significantly altered following exposure to both PFOA and WV, compared with individual exposure. Our results suggest that WV could alleviate the adverse effects of PFOA on the aquatic environment, but ecological risk assessments and toxicological safety evaluations of WV are necessary.

KEYWORDS:

• Dugesia japonica
• Perfluorooctanoic acid
• wood vinegar
• enzyme activities
• gene expression

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 41201518], Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation, China [grant numbers ZR2019MC028, ZR2020MC037], Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program [grant number J18KA138] and SDUT & Zhangdian District Integration Development Project [grant number 2018JS010].

Notes on contributors

Jianyong Zhang

Jianyong Zhang is a Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Na Sun

Na Sun is a Master student of cell biology (cell environment and biochemistry) at the Department of Bioengineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Jingyi Sun

Jingyi Sun is a Master student of cell biology (cell environment and biochemistry) at the Department of Bioscience, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Bin Wang

Bin Wang is a Master graduate of cell biology (cell environment and biochemistry) at the Department of Bioengineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Xiaoran Chen

Xiaoran Chen is a undergraduate at the Department of Bioscience, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Jing Liu

Jing Liu is a undergraduate at the Department of Bioscience, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Bosheng Zhao

Bosheng Zhao is a Professor at the Department of Bioscience, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.

Zuoqing Yuan

Zuoqing Yuan is a Professor at the Department of Bioscience, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo, Shandong, 255000, China.