Title: Analysis of the combined estrogenic activity of plasticisers

Authors: Hui Zhang; Shiqi Zhen; Zhaoying Tan; Chicheng Cao; Qi Zhang; Qi Ju

Addresses: Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, 210009 Nanjing, China ' Institute of Food Safety and Assessment, Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Jiangsu Province, 172 Jiangsu Road, 210009 Nanjing, China ' Department of Public Health Information, Center for Disease Prevention and Control of Jiangsu Province, 172 Jiangsu Road, 210009 Nanjing, China ' Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, 210009 Nanjing, China ' Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, 210009 Nanjing, China ' Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine Engineering, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, Southeast University, 87 Dingjiaqiao Road, 210009 Nanjing, China

Abstract: Several studies have reported that plastic additives exhibit estrogenic activity and may cause adverse effects on human health. However, existing risk assessment procedures lack the capability to accurately evaluate the combined effects of plastic additives. In this study, we performed E-screen assay to quantify estrogenic activities of single chemicals and their mixtures. We applied biomathematical regression models to simulate toxicity of four single substances. The best-fit for the dose-response relationships of individual compounds and their mixture were modelled using Weibull functions. The effects of the mixture were then estimated using three additive models, the CA, IA and the joint action models. Comparison of the model-predicted mixture effects with experimentally-determined results allows determination of the most representative model. Our results suggest that IA is the most representative and robust model to access the combined effects of the mixture, which provides reference data for health risk assessment of combined pollution of plasticisers.

Keywords: bisphenol A; phthalates; estrogen mimic; in vitro assay; MCF-7 cells; does-response relationships; nonlinear regression; mixture effects; combined toxicity; CA; concentration addition; IA; in-dependent action; joint action models; predictive model.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2020.119666

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2020 Vol.68 No.1/2, pp.1 - 12

Accepted: 05 Apr 2020
Published online: 14 Dec 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article