|
(T/EH080) Estrogenicity of surfactants. Fernandez, M.F.1, Pazos, P.1, Serna, A.1, Lopez, M.J.1, Aranda, M.1, Pedraza, V.1, Olea, N.1, 1 ABSTRACT- Surfactants are surface-active compounds used in industrial and household applications. They have one of the highest production rates of all organic chemicals and therefore its environmental presence is often denounced. Commercial mixtures of surfactants consist of several tens to hundreds of homologues, oligomers and isomers of anionic, non-ionic, cationic and amphoteric compounds, which makes their identification and quantification in the environment complicated and cumbersome. In addition, lack of information on degradation and metabolite production hampers studies about their environmental behaviour and toxicity. We studied in the MCF7 cell proliferation assay the estrogenicity of alkyphenols (p-tert-octylphenol OP, p-nonylphenol NP), alkylphenol ethoxylates and carboxylates (NP1EC, NP1EO, NP2EC, NP2EO, NP10EO), brominated alkylphenols (BrNP), linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS), and sulfophenyl carboxilates (2C2-SPC, 3C3-SPC, 4C4-SPC, 5C5-SPC, 2C3-SPC, 2C4-SPC, 3C4-SPC). We used as gold standard for estrogenicity the uterotropic assay, which measures the increase in uterine wet weight and tissue mass after in vivo treatment with the test-substance. The proliferative effect (PE) was significantly different from 1 (Control cells) for OP, NP, NP 1EO, BrNP and BrNPEO. Neither BrNP carboxylates, LAS nor its metabolites proved to be estrogenic in both assays. As brominated alkylphenols can be bioaccumulated in human fatty tissue, further research is required to assess the repercussions of these findings for human health. Key words: surfactants, alkylphenols, brominated alkylphenols, linear alkylnenzene sulfonate |
