Estrogenic effects of fluorinated diiodine alkanes in MCF‐7 cells, H295R cells and zebrafish embryo assays

Abstract Fluorinated diiodine alkanes (FDIAs), important industrial intermediates in the synthesis of various perfluorinated compounds, which are distributed widely in wildlife and humans. Recent studies showed that FDIAs had in vitro estrogenic effects. However, to date, little information is available regarding the in vivo estrogenic effects of FDIAs and the mechanisms are unclear. In this study, a combination of in vitro and in vivo assays was used to investigate the estrogenic effects of FDIAs. We tested the in vitro estrogenic effects and estrogen receptor‐related gene expression via MCF‐7 cell assay. The hormone level of estradiol and the expression of estrogenic synthesis genes were measured in the H295R cell assay. Finally, the in vivo effects of FDIAs on development and estrogen‐related gene expression were assessed in the zebrafish embryos assay. The results demonstrated that FDIAs could exhibit estrogenic activity through inducing cell proliferation (1.6‐6.7‐fold of the control) and estrogen receptor alpha gene expression (1.07‐1.39‐fold of the control), altering estradiol production (1.14‐1.22‐fold of the control) and the major estrogenic synthesis gene expression of CYP19 (1.22‐1.31‐fold of the control), disrupting the estrogen‐related genes ( esr1 and cyp19b ) levels in zebrafish (1.52‐2.99‐fold and 2.95‐5.00‐fold of the control for esr1 and cyp19b , respectively). The current findings indicated the potential estrogenic effects of FDIAs and provided novel information for human risk assessment.