Effects of perfluorooctane sulfonate on behavioural activity, regeneration and antioxidant enzymes in planarianDugesia japonica

AbstractPerfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) is a persistent organic pollutant and has been found to be the predominant perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs) in the environment. In the present study, planarian Dugesia japonica is employed to investigate the toxicity of this compound. The behavioural activity, survival, regeneration and antioxidant enzyme activities of the D. japonica exposed to PFOS were investigated. The results showed that the planarian D. japonica is very sensitive to low concentration pollutants including PFOS and suitable for toxicological bioassays. PFOS has severe toxicity in inducing oxidative stress, regeneration and development toxicity in planarians. The toxicity is indicated by reduced planarian locomotor velocity (pLMV), reduced appearance of auricles in regenerating animals, changed in antioxidant enzyme SOD and CAT activities. The information presented in this study will help elucidating the PFOS-induced toxicity in aquatic organisms.Keywords: antioxidant enzyme activitiesperfluorooctane sulfonateplanarianregeneration toxicity AcknowledgementsWe thank the members of our laboratory for suggestions and encouragement. Research was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31100377, 41201518), Shandong Province Natural Science Foundation (ZR2011CQ018), a Project of Shandong Province Higher Educational Science and Technology Program (J11LC09) and a Project for Young Teacher Development Support Program of Shandong University of Technology.