Abstract
An in vitro reporter gene assay based on human breast cancer T47D cells (ER-CALUX®) was applied to examine the ability of diesel exhaust to induce or inhibit estrogen receptor (ER)-mediated gene expression. Exhaust from a heavy-duty diesel engine was either treated by iron- or copper/iron-catalyzed diesel particulate filters (DPFs) or studied as unfiltered exhaust. Collected samples included particle-bound and semivolatile constituents of diesel exhaust. Our findings show that all of the samples contained compounds that were able to induce ER-mediated gene expression as well as compounds that suppressed the activity of the endogenous hormone 17β-estradiol (E2). Estrogenic activity prevailed over antiestrogenic activity. We found an overall ER-mediated activity of 1.63 ± 0.31 ng E2 CALUX equivalents (E2-CEQs) per m3 of unfiltered exhaust. In filtered exhaust, we measured 0.74 ± 0.07 (iron-catalyzed DPF) and 0.55 ± 0.09 ng E2-CEQ m−3 (copper/iron-catalyzed DPF), corresponding to reductions in estrogenic activity of 55 and 66%, respectively. Our study demonstrates that both catalytic DPFs lowered the ER-mediated endocrine-disrupting potential of diesel exhaust.
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Abbreviations
- AhR:
-
Aryl hydrocarbon receptor
- ANOVA:
-
One-way analysis of variance
- Cl:
-
Chlorine-enriched diesel fuel (14 μg g−1)
- Cu:
-
Diesel fuel with copper/iron-based fuel additive (9.0/7.5 μg g−1)
- DMSO:
-
Dimethylsulfoxide
- DPF:
-
Diesel particulate filter
- E2:
-
17β-Estradiol
- EE2:
-
17α-Ethinylestradiol
- E2-CEQ:
-
17β-Estradiol CALUX equivalent
- ER:
-
Estrogen receptor;
- ER-CALUX® :
-
Estrogen Responsive–Chemically Activated LUciferase eXpression
- F:
-
Exhaust treatment by diesel particulate filter
- FBS:
-
Fetal bovine serum
- Fe:
-
Diesel fuel with iron-based additive (4.5 μg g−1)
- PCDD/Fs:
-
Polychlorinated dibenzodioxins/furans
- Ref:
-
Reference diesel fuel
- RSD:
-
Relative standard deviation
- xCl:
-
Chlorine-enriched diesel fuel (110 μg g−1)
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Acknowledgements
We thank all our collaborators at Empa, BFH-TI Biel, and TTM Niederrohrdorf for providing exhaust samples and know-how. This study was supported by the board of Empa and the Swiss National Science Foundation (NRP50 program, grant no. 40504–104378).
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Wenger, D., Gerecke, A.C., Heeb, N.V. et al. Catalytic diesel particulate filters reduce the in vitro estrogenic activity of diesel exhaust. Anal Bioanal Chem 390, 2021–2029 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-008-1872-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-008-1872-8