Epigenetic toxicity of a mixture of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on gap junctional intercellular communication before and after biodegradation

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known carcinogens, but most research on their toxicity in the development of human-risk assessment models has focused on genotoxicity. Many nongenotoxic PAHs, however, have been shown to be epigenetically toxic by disrupting gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC), an effect which has been affiliated with tumor promotion. We therefore used GJIC as an epigenetic biomarker to assess the toxic effect of a nonaqueous phase liquid (NAPL) mixture of PAHs commonly found in coal tar and creosote products. The NAPL mixture consisted of toluene,naphthalene, 1-methylnaphthalene, 2-ethylnaphthalene, acenaphthene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, and pyrene. This mixture reversibly inhibited GJIC at a maximal and noncytotoxic dose of 60 mu M. Inhibition occurred within 5 min, indicating a post-translational modification of gap junction proteins. Biodegradation of globules of this mixture suspended in mineral media by a microorganism isolated from creosote-contaminated soils resulted in the removal of all but three heavy PAHs: acenaphthene, pyrene, and fluoranthene. a reconstituted mixture of these three compounds showed results on GJIC activity identical to the original mixture relative to dose-, rate-, and time-responses, indicating that the toxicity of the PAHs was additive. The results suggest that bioremediation techniques that leave residual components of such NAPL mixtures in contaminated media can quantitatively but not qualitatively reduce their epigenetic toxic risk. Nonetheless, such bioresistant residuals may be environmentally less mobile than the biodegraded components of the precursor NAPLs.