Premium
Deleterious Effects of Harris County Watersheds on HT29 Colon Cells
Author(s) -
AbdullahSmoot Dayana A
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2019.33.1_supplement.457.1
Subject(s) - environmental science , water quality , mercury (programming language) , hydrology (agriculture) , methylmercury , water pollution , environmental chemistry , aquatic ecosystem , chemistry , ecology , biology , bioaccumulation , engineering , geotechnical engineering , computer science , programming language
Houston, also known as the “Bayou City”, has a complex network of waterways surrounding and interweaving throughout the city. They work as a storm water runoff system to help prevent flooding, but many communities use the watersheds for recreational purposes. Local patrons boat, fish and swim in the bayous, unaware of the chemicals and pollutants lurking in the water. Current studies in our lab show that there are high concentrations of arsenic, mercury, chromium, lead and zinc in the water. We hypothesize that the metals and chemical compounds identified could cause the water to have deleterious effects on living organisms occupying the watersheds or using its resources. Water samples have been collected in triplicates from 5 major bayous including Greens Bayou, White Oak Bayou, Halls Bayou, Hunting Bayou, and Buffalo Bayou. The methods include turning the water sample to a PBS solution that will not be detrimental to the cells, then serial dilute the samples in media for varying concentrations (control or 0%, 12%, 25%, 50%, 100%) and test the concentration on the HT29 colon cells using a cytotoxicity assay and proliferation assays at 48‐hour time points. We observed a linear decrease in viable cells as the concentration of bayou water sample increases. Future studies include treating FHC colon cells with the same bayou water concentrations to compare to the HT29 cellular response and investigate the cytotoxic cellular effect with media containing the chemical elements at the concentrations determined from the chemical analysis. Support or Funding Information National Science Foundation ‐ Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) National Science Foundation ‐ The Reinvestment Initiative in Science and Engineering (RISE)This graph represents the Summer 2017 (Pre Hurricane Harvey) final sampling locations for each bayou and the cytotoxic effects on the HT29 colon cells for the various concentrations.This graph represents the Fall 2017 (Post Hurricane Harvey) final sampling locations for each bayou and the cytotoxic effects on the HT29 colon cells for the various concentrations.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .