Using in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE) to develop toxicity metrics for human health risk assessment of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs).

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are flame retardants found in many industrial components, such as furniture foam, consumer electronics, plastics, and textiles and levels have increased in humans over the past few decades. PBDEs demonstrate adverse neurotoxic effects in mice, are lipophilic, and bioaccumulate in fish. Consequently, PBDE biomagnification may occur, which can be transferred to humans in amounts that may present adverse health effects. This investigation uses in vitro models to calculate bioassay-based reference doses in order to develop a human health risk assessment based on the consumption of PBDE-contaminated fish, using in vitro to in vivo extrapolation (IVIVE). The toxicity effects of ten PBDE congeners were examined and compared among those developed using traditional in vivo mice studies and in vitro models in this study using rat (Clone-9), HEPG2 and zebrafish liver cells to determine the feasibility of using alternative approaches to develop toxicity metrics to evaluate human health risk.