Department Environmental Toxicology

Mechanistic insights into the toxicity of tire particles applying fish cell lines


Tire and road wear particles (TRWP), which are generated by the erosion of tires while driving, have been shown to represent a large part of anthropogenic particles released into the environment. Nevertheless, the potential ecological risk of TRWP and their associated chemicals on aquatic organisms remain largely underinvestigated. Our study aims at determining the toxicity and investigate the mechanisms induced by TRWP and associated chemicals to fish using different rainbow trout cell lines (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

Cover picture: Car/tire picture given by WBCSD in the framework of the TIP, Tire particle electron microscopy from our EPFL partners, Rainbow Trout image created with BioRender

 

Publications

In vitro digestion of tire particles in a fish model (Oncorhynchus mykiss): solubilization kinetics of heavy metals and effects of food coingestion

Tire and road wear particles (TRWP) have been shown to represent a large part of anthropogenic particles released into the environment. Nevertheless, the potential ecological risk of TRWP in the different environmental compartments and their potential toxic impacts on terrestrial and aquatic organisms remain largely underinvestigated. Several heavy metals compose TRWP, including Zn, which is used as a catalyst during the vulcanization process of rubber. This study investigated the solubilization potential of metals from cryogenically milled tire tread (CMTT) and TRWP in simulated gastric fluids (SFGASTRIC) and simulated intestinal fluids (SFINTESTINAL) designed to mimic rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) gastrointestinal conditions. Our results indicate that the solubilization of heavy metals was greatly enhanced by gastrointestinal fluids compared to that by mineral water. After a 26 h in vitro digestion, 9.6 and 23.0% of total Zn content of CMTT and TRWP, respectively, were solubilized into the simulated gastrointestinal fluids. Coingestion of tire particles (performed with CMTT only) and surrogate prey items (Gammarus pulex) demonstrated that the animal organic matter reduced the amount of bioavailable Zn solubilized from CMTT. Contrastingly, in the coingestion scenario with vegetal organic matter (Lemna minor), high quantities of Zn were solubilized from L. minor and cumulated with Zn solubilized from CMTT.
Masset, T.; Ferrari, B. J. D.; Oldham, D.; Dudefoi, W.; Minghetti, M.; Schirmer, K.; Bergmann, A.; Vermeirssen, E.; Breider, F. (2021) In vitro digestion of tire particles in a fish model (Oncorhynchus mykiss): solubilization kinetics of heavy metals and effects of food coingestion, Environmental Science and Technology, 55(23), 15788-15796, doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c04385, Institutional Repository

Contact

Prof. Dr. Kristin Schirmer Head of department Tel. +41 58 765 5266 Send Mail

Team Member

Dr. Anna Toso Postdoctoral Scientist Tel. +41 58 765 6798 Send Mail

In collaboration with

Dr. AlanJames Bergmann Ecotox Centre Tel. +41 58 765 6834 Send Mail
Dr. Benoit Ferrari Ecotox Centre Tel. +41 58 765 5373 Send Mail
Dr. Etienne Vermeirssen Tel. +41 58 765 5295 Send Mail

Dr. Florian Breider (EPFL)
Dr. Thibault Masset (EPFL)

Funding

World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Tire Industry Project (TIP)