Seasonal variations of dioxine-like activity in sediments of the Bizerta lagoon (Tunisia) detected with in vitro cellular bioassays

I. Louiz (1) , O.K. Ben-Hassine (1) , M. Ben-Attia (2) , Saïd Kinani (3) , Selim Ait-Aissa (3)

1 Unité de recherche Biologie, Ecologie et Parasitologie des Organisme Aquatiques
2 DCMR - Laboratoire des mécanismes réactionnels
3 INERIS - Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques

In order to evaluate sediment contamination in six stations from Bizerta lagoon, a combination of in vitro bioassays and chemical analysis was applied to sediment organic extracts. By using 7- ethoxyresorufin-O-deethylase (EROD) induction in the fish hepatoma cell line PLHC-1 after 4 h of cell exposure, dioxin-like activities were detected in all analysed samples. Dioxin-like activities were higher in winter than in summer. A highly significant correlation was observed between bioassay- and chemical analyses-derived toxic equivalents (TEQs), but PAHs accounted for only a small part of the detected biological activities. Our results suggest the presence of unknown readily metabolised EROD inducing compounds, which will need to be further characterized

Keywords: LAGOONS; POLLUTION; SEDIMENTS; ECOTOXICOLOGY

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]; Toxicology; Ecotoxicology; Environmental Sciences

I. Louiz, O.K. Ben-Hassine, M. Ben-Attia, Saïd Kinani, Selim Ait-Aissa. Seasonal variations of dioxine-like activity in sediments of the Bizerta lagoon (Tunisia) detected with in vitro cellular bioassays. 39. CIESM Congress, May 2010, Venise, Italy. ⟨ineris-00970659⟩