Comprehensive Evaluation of the Toxicity of the Flame Retardant (decabromodiphenyl ether) in a Bioindicator Fish (Gambusia affinis)

Abstract In recent years, polybrominated diphenyl ethers or PBDE have been identified as the new emerging pollutants. These pollutants are derived from e-waste and their adverse effect on biota has been proven. In this work, the adverse effects of BDE-209 on mosquitofish (Gambusia affinis) were evaluated. Acute toxicity bioassays were carried out with daily renewal of solutions, using different concentrations of environmental relevance ranged between 10 and 100 µg.L− 1 of BDE-209. After 48 and 96 h of exposure, mortality, individual activity (swimming), biochemical activity (catalase; thiobarbituric acid reactive substances; and acetylcholinesterase), and cytotoxic responses (micronucleus frequencies) were studied. In addition, integrated biomarker response and multivariate analyses were conducted to study the correlation of biomarkers. The calculated lethal concentrations 50 remained constant after all exposure times (24 to 96 h), and the corresponding value was 27.79 µg.L− 1 BDE-209. Furthermore, BDE-209 induced effects on the swimming activity of this species in relation to acetylcholine, since BDE-209 increased, produced oxidative damage at the biochemical level and genotoxicity after 48 h of sublethal concentrations (10 and 25 µg.L− 1 BDE-209) of exposure. The results show that BDE-209 has biochemical, cytotoxic, neurotoxic and genotoxic potential on G. affinis. In addition, mosquitofish can be used as a good bioindicator to evaluate environmental stressors and flame retardants could be a risk factor to Neotropical species.