Bioassay analysis of dioxin-like compounds : response interactions and environmental transformation of Ah receptor agonists

Sammanfattning: Dioxin-like compounds mediate their toxicity by binding to the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and through this receptor a cascade of biochemical and toxic events are triggered. Mechanism-specific dioxin bioassays utilise the AhR coupled induction of endogenous CYP1A proteins or reporter gene systems for detection of dioxin-like compounds and other AhR ligands. The use of mechanism-specific in vitro bioassays as a complement or alternative to conventional GC-MS analysis of dioxin-like compounds has gained acceptance over the last years and is also in part a search for a tool for rapid and facilitated dioxin risk assessment.This thesis includes several applications for bioassay analysis using the two bioassays Dioxin Responsive Chemically Activated Luciferase eXpression assay (DR-CALUX) and Chick Embryo Liver Culture Assay for Dioxins (CELCAD). The two dioxin bioassays were used to study the AhR mediated induction for single compounds, as well as for mixtures of AhR active compounds in different sample matrices, also including studies of the influence of clean-up methods and fractionation on bioassay response.Bioanalysis gave valuable information on the toxicological relevance of decaBDE UV photoproducts. The bioassay methodology was able to reflect the actual variation in PBDF formation, and enabled a good estimation of toxicity of the congeners formed, regardless of chemical identification and congener specific potency data. The congeners formed had low potencies compared to the most toxic 2,3,7,8-substituted congeners, but the high concentrations resulted in considerable levels of TEQs.For complex samples like organic household waste digestates it is advisable to use both bio- and chemical analysis, for confirmation of results, as far as possible. The bioassay-directed fractionation approach requires several fractionation steps (i.e. different methods) in order to obtain well-defined fractions, from which detailed conclusions can be drawn.Also, proper analysis of human adipose tissue, although by far less complex than organic household waste, requires fractionation. Bioanalysis of these samples showed large deviations from the additivity assumption applied in the TEF calculation from chemical analysis. Thus, it is not clear how to interpret the bioassay results in relation to chemical results, although both methods gave the same information on relative levels of AhR agonists and showed good reproducibility.Both DR-CALUX and CELCAD proved to be useful for AhR agonist analysis in mixtures and for single compounds. The DR-CALUX enables more rapid analysis of large number of samples and is therefore, a more suitable tool for AhR agonist detection, whereas CELCAD has more limitations and is more suitable for the study of AhR mediated toxicity with special emphasis on avian species. In vitro bioassays have many implications for the analysis of AhR agonists, yielding reliable and reproducible results, provided that proper clean-up and fractionation of samples is applied. Bioassays enable fast determinations of total or integrated effects of AhR ligands in samples, as well as specific potency studies. Thus, bioassays are in all a valuable and necessary complement to chemical analysis.