Reproductive biomarker response to PFAS-contaminated groundwater [testis]

The use of aqueous film-forming foams (AFFF) at fire-training areas (FTAs) has introduced into ground- and surface waters a complex mixture of per- and poly-fluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). The toxicity of environmental PFAS mixtures to wildlife is not well understood and presents a knowledge gap that limits accurate risk assessment. To evaluate reproductive biomarker responses to complex environmental PFAS mixtures, we conducted a series of on-site experiments using flow-through mobile laboratories exposing fish to groundwater impacted by a legacy FTA and an adjacent reference site A 60K fathead minnow microarray was used to quantify gene expression patterns in the testis and liver of fish exposed to water from Fire Training Area 1 and 2 relative to a reference site. Fathead minnows were exposed to ground water in a mobile laboratory at the fire training areas. Sample sizes included the following: Reference site (n=5), Control effluent (n=7), FTA-2 (n=5) and FTA-2/Ref (50/50 mix) (n=5).