Résumé
According to REACH regulation recommendation, chemical users have to demonstrate the innocuousness of chemicals they use. In currently used tests, toxicity for fish is assessed using aqueous exposure which is not suitable for hydrophobic molecules. A new test has been developed where fish embryos are deposited in contact with a sedimentary matrix spiked with hydrophobic molecules to be evaluated. In the current work, we evaluate the toxicity of sediment spiked with four individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (benzo[a]pyrene, pyrene, fluoranthene and 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene) in order to evaluate the suitability of this test to assess the toxic effects of hydrophobic environmental pollutants. Depending on the PAH used for sediment contamination, embryos displayed morphological alterations (cardiac and yolk oedema, lordosis), cardiac dysfunction and DNA damage demonstrating the suitability of the test for studying contaminant effects. Toxicity of PAH mixtures will be analysed following the same procedure. EC2CO-Cytrix grant (GénérationPOP) and Conseil Général Charente-maritime fellowship.