TY - JOUR
T1 - Benchmarking organic micropollutants in wastewater, recycled water and drinking water with in vitro bioassays
AU - Escher, Beate I.
AU - Allinson, Mayumi
AU - Altenburger, Rolf
AU - Bain, Peter A.
AU - Balaguer, Patrick
AU - Busch, Wibke
AU - Crago, Jordan
AU - Denslow, Nancy D.
AU - Dopp, Elke
AU - Hilscherova, Klara
AU - Humpage, Andrew R.
AU - Kumar, Anu
AU - Grimaldi, Marina
AU - Jayasinghe, B. Sumith
AU - Jarosova, Barbora
AU - Jia, Ai
AU - Makarov, Sergei
AU - Maruya, Keith A.
AU - Medvedev, Alex
AU - Mehinto, Alvine C.
AU - Mendez, Jamie E.
AU - Poulsen, Anita
AU - Prochazka, Erik
AU - Richard, Jessica
AU - Schifferli, Andrea
AU - Schlenk, Daniel
AU - Scholz, Stefan
AU - Shiraishi, Fujio
AU - Snyder, Shane
AU - Su, Guanyong
AU - Tang, Janet Y.M.
AU - Burg, Bart Van Der
AU - Linden, Sander C.Van Der
AU - Werner, Inge
AU - Westerheide, Sandy D.
AU - Wong, Chris K. C.
AU - Yang, Min
AU - Yeung, Bonnie H.Y.
AU - Zhang, Xiaowei
AU - Leusch, Frederic D.L.
N1 - Funding information:
We thank Unitywater and Seqwater for access to their treatment plants. We acknowledge J.P. Giesy of University of Saskatchewan, Canada, for sharing the H4IIE-luc cells with RECETOX and M. Denison from University of California, Davis, U.S. for sharing the AhR-CAFLUX used at UQ and RECETOX. AREc32 cells were kindly provided by C.R. Wolf from University of Dundee, UK, to U.Q. We thank Michael Bartkow for helpful discussions, Peta Neale, Julien Reungoat, and Jatinder Sidhu for sampling assistance and Daniela Baumberger, Mriga Dutt, Eva Glenn, Ling Jin, and Shane McCarty for experimental assistance. This work was supported, mainly, by the WateReuse Research Foundation (WRF 10-07), and, in part, by the California Water Resources Control Board (Agreement No. 10-096-250) and the European Union, project Demeau, grant agreement number 308339.
Publisher copyright:
© 2013 American Chemical Society
PY - 2014/2/4
Y1 - 2014/2/4
N2 - Thousands of organic micropollutants and their transformation products occur in water. Although often present at low concentrations, individual compounds contribute to mixture effects. Cell-based bioassays that target health-relevant biological endpoints may therefore complement chemical analysis for water quality assessment. The objective of this study was to evaluate cell-based bioassays for their suitability to benchmark water quality and to assess efficacy of water treatment processes. The selected bioassays cover relevant steps in the toxicity pathways including induction of xenobiotic metabolism, specific and reactive modes of toxic action, activation of adaptive stress response pathways and system responses. Twenty laboratories applied 103 unique in vitro bioassays to a common set of 10 water samples collected in Australia, including wastewater treatment plant effluent, two types of recycled water (reverse osmosis and ozonation/activated carbon filtration), stormwater, surface water, and drinking water. Sixty-five bioassays (63%) showed positive results in at least one sample, typically in wastewater treatment plant effluent, and only five (5%) were positive in the control (ultrapure water). Each water type had a characteristic bioanalytical profile with particular groups of toxicity pathways either consistently responsive or not responsive across test systems. The most responsive health-relevant endpoints were related to xenobiotic metabolism (pregnane X and aryl hydrocarbon receptors), hormone-mediated modes of action (mainly related to the estrogen, glucocorticoid, and antiandrogen activities), reactive modes of action (genotoxicity) and adaptive stress response pathway (oxidative stress response). This study has demonstrated that selected cell-based bioassays are suitable to benchmark water quality and it is recommended to use a purpose-tailored panel of bioassays for routine monitoring.
AB - Thousands of organic micropollutants and their transformation products occur in water. Although often present at low concentrations, individual compounds contribute to mixture effects. Cell-based bioassays that target health-relevant biological endpoints may therefore complement chemical analysis for water quality assessment. The objective of this study was to evaluate cell-based bioassays for their suitability to benchmark water quality and to assess efficacy of water treatment processes. The selected bioassays cover relevant steps in the toxicity pathways including induction of xenobiotic metabolism, specific and reactive modes of toxic action, activation of adaptive stress response pathways and system responses. Twenty laboratories applied 103 unique in vitro bioassays to a common set of 10 water samples collected in Australia, including wastewater treatment plant effluent, two types of recycled water (reverse osmosis and ozonation/activated carbon filtration), stormwater, surface water, and drinking water. Sixty-five bioassays (63%) showed positive results in at least one sample, typically in wastewater treatment plant effluent, and only five (5%) were positive in the control (ultrapure water). Each water type had a characteristic bioanalytical profile with particular groups of toxicity pathways either consistently responsive or not responsive across test systems. The most responsive health-relevant endpoints were related to xenobiotic metabolism (pregnane X and aryl hydrocarbon receptors), hormone-mediated modes of action (mainly related to the estrogen, glucocorticoid, and antiandrogen activities), reactive modes of action (genotoxicity) and adaptive stress response pathway (oxidative stress response). This study has demonstrated that selected cell-based bioassays are suitable to benchmark water quality and it is recommended to use a purpose-tailored panel of bioassays for routine monitoring.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84893629531&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/es403899t
DO - 10.1021/es403899t
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 24369993
AN - SCOPUS:84893629531
SN - 0013-936X
VL - 48
SP - 1940
EP - 1956
JO - Environmental Science and Technology
JF - Environmental Science and Technology
IS - 3
ER -
