Effects of Legacy and Emerging PFAS on Development and Pancreatic Morphologies in Larval Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Presenter: Saumya Bawari

Faculty Sponsor: Alicia Timme-Laragy

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Public Health and Epidemiology

Session: Poster Session 5, 3:15 PM - 4:00 PM, Auditorium, A21

ABSTRACT

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are anthropogenic, persistent environmental contaminants used in industrial and consumer products. Their ability to bioaccumulate and ubiquity have led to widespread human exposure and adverse developmental effects. While exposure to some legacy sulfonated PFAS (e.g. perflourooctane sulfonate or PFOS) has been shown to impact pancreatic development, some of the most ubiquitous acid PFAS such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perflourohexanoic acid (PFHxA) remain understudied in the specific context of pancreatic development and subsequent metabolic dysfunction. Zebrafish (Danio rerio) are an effective model for studying developmental toxicology and pancreatic
organogenesis due to their transparency during development, rapid generation time, and similarity to humans.

Transgenic zebrafish lines expressing EGFP under the regulation of the preproinsulin a promoter Tg(insulin:GFP) or EGFP under the regulation of the pancreas associated transcription factor 1a promoter Tg(ptf1a:GFP) were used to allow direct visualization of endocrine islet and exocrine pancreatic morphology respectively. Embryos were exposed to increasing concentrations of a single PFAS from 3 to 96 hours post-fertilization, and morphological endpoints including body length, islet area, exocrine pancreas length, and pericardial area were assessed using fluorescence and brightfield microscopy.

While there was no observed trend on exocrine length from PFOA nor PFHxA, exposure to increasing PFOA concentrations up to 32 µM tended to decrease pancreatic islet area, indicating impaired endocrine pancreas development. These findings demonstrate that legacy acid PFAS have adverse effects on pancreatic development and support the need for further research on replacement PFAS as safer alternatives.