Reproductive toxicity of organic extracts from petrochemical plant effluents discharged to the Yangtze River,China

Water pollution of the Yangtze River in China became one of challenges that the government is facing today. Increasing numbers of petrochemical plants were built along the river in past decades, and numbers of organic chemicals were discharged into the river. Our goal was to establish in vitro system on rat sertoli cells, spermatogenic cells and leydig cells to investigate the reproductive toxicity potential induced by organic extracts from petrochemical effluents. Our results showed that the organic extract depressed the viability （p 〈 0.01） and destroyed the plasma membrane integrity of sertoli cells and spermatogenic cells to a certain degree. Accordingly, proportion of early apoptotic sertoli cells and late apoptotic spermatogenic cells increased significantly. Although significant morphological changes were not detected for leydig cells, the extract was observed to inhibit their testosterone production （p 〈 0.01）. Sertoli cells and sperrnatogenic cells appeared to be more sensitive and maybe the main targets of the key toxins. These results suggested that the in vitro system on rat testicular cells may be useful to predicate reproductive toxicity potential of organic extracts from petrochemical effluents. More attention should be paid to the petrochemical effluents, because long-term accumulation of these organic compounds in organisms may cause spermatogenesis malfunction and testosterone reduction.

Acute toxicity assessment of drinking water source with luminescent bacteria: Impact of environmental conditions and a case study in Luoma Lake, East China

Protecting the quality of lake watersheds by preventing and reducing their contamination is an effective approach to ensure the sustainability of the drinking water supply.In this study,acute toxicity assessment was conducted on the basis of acute bioluminescence inhibition assay using the marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri as the test organism and Luoma Lake drinking water source in East China as the research target.The suitable ranges of environmental factors,including pH value,organic matter,turbidity,hardness,and dissolved oxygen of water samples were evaluated for the toxicity testing of bioluminescent bacteria.The physicochemical characteristics of water samples at the selected 43 sites of Luoma Lake watershed were measured.Results showed that the variations in pH value(7.31-8.41),hardness(5-20°d)and dissolved oxygen(4.44-11.03 mg/L)of Luoma Lake and its main inflow and outflow rivers had negligible impacts on the acute toxicity testing of V.fischeri.The luminescence inhibition rates ranged from-11.21%to 10.80%at the 43 sites.Pearson's correlation analysis in the experiment revealed that temperature,pH value,hardness,and turbidity had no correlation with luminescence inhibition rate,whereas dissolved oxygen showed a weak statistically positive correlation with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.455(p<0.05).