Bioaccumulation and Toxicity Effects of Flubendiamide in Zebrafish (Danio Rerio)

Abstract As a diamide insecticide, flubendiamide is widely used and has many adverse effects on environmental organisms. In this study, bioaccumulation and toxicity effects of flubendiamide in zebrafish (Danio rerio) were studied. Specifically, the results showed that the concentrations of flubendiamide increased in the early stage and achieved steady stages at 14 days and the bioconcentration factors (BCFs) of flubendiamide in zebrafish were 1.125 - 2.011. Furthermore, flubendiamide had no significant effects on the growth phenotypes of zebrafish. However, zebrafish hepatic somatic index (HSI) of zebrafish had changed significantly with exposure. Histopathological analysis showed that exposure to flubendiamide could cause structural damage to liver tissue of zebrafish. Further physiological and biochemical analysis showed that flubendiamide could significantly change the activity of CAT and the contents of MDA and GSH in liver of zebrafish. In particular, exposure to flubendiamide could also cause significant changes in the mRNA expression levels of cell apoptosis-related genes involving p53, puma, caspase-3, caspase-9, apaf-1 and bax in liver of zebrafish. In general, these results indicated that exposure to flubendiamide could induce liver damage by inducing oxidative stress and apoptosis in liver of zebrafish. The results of this study will help to further comprehensively evaluate the safety of flubendiamide to aquatic organisms.