Use of the enhanced frog embryo teratogenesis assay-Xenopus (FETAX) to determine chemically-induced phenotypic effects

  • Lingling Hu
  • , Jingmin Zhu
  • , Jeanette M. Rotchell
  • , Lijiao Wu
  • , Jinjuan Gao
  • , Huahong Shi*
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

The frog embryo teratogenesis assay-Xenopus (FETAX) is an established method for the evaluation of the developmental toxicities of chemicals. To develop an enhanced FETAX that is appropriate for common environmental contaminants, we exposed Xenopus tropicalis embryos to eight compounds, including tributyltin, triphenyltin, CdCl2, pyraclostrobin, picoxystrobin, coumoxystrobin, all-trans-retinoic acid and 9-cis-retinoic acid. Multiple malformations were induced in embryos particularly following exposure to tributyltin, triphenyltin and pyraclostrobin at environmentally relevant concentrations. Based on the range of observed malformations, we proposed a phenotypic assessment method with 20 phenotypes and a 0-5 scoring system. This derived index exhibited concentration-dependent relationships for all of the chemicals tested. Furthermore, the phenotype profiles were characteristic of the different tested chemicals. Our results indicate that malformation phenotypes can be quantitatively integrated with the primary endpoints in conventional FETAX assessments to allow for increased sensitivity and measurement of quantitative effects and to provide indicative mechanistic information for each tested chemical.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)258-265
Number of pages8
JournalScience of the Total Environment
Volume508
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Developmental toxicity
  • Embryo
  • FETAX
  • Phenotypic alterations
  • Pollutants
  • Teratogenicity

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