Editor's Highlight: Transplacental and Lactational Transfer of Firemaster® 550 Components in Dosed Wistar Rats

Firemaster® 550 (FM 550) is a commercial mixture of organophosphate and brominated flame retardants currently in use as a replacement for pentaBDE. Its organophosphate components include triphenyl phosphate (TPHP) and a suite of isopropylated triarylphosphate isomers (ITPs); its brominated components include 2-ethylhexyl-2,3,4,5-tetrabromobenzoate (EH-TBB) and bis (2-ethylhexyl)-2,3,4,5-tetrabromophthalate (BEH-TEBP). Taken together, these chemicals have been shown to be endocrine disrupting and potentially toxic, and human exposure to them is widespread. In this study, maternal transfer of FM 550 components, and in some cases their metabolites, was investigated in dosed Wistar rats. Gestational and lactational transfer were examined separately, with dams orally exposed to 300 or 1000 µg of FM 550 for 10 consecutive days during gestation (gestational day [GD] 9-18) or lactation (postnatal day [PND] 3-12). Levels of parent compounds were measured in fetus and whole pup tissue homogenates, and in dam and pup serum, and several metabolites were measured in dam and pup urine. EH-TBB body burdens resulting from lactational transfer were approximately 200- to 300-fold higher than those resulting from placental transfer, whereas low levels of BEH-TEBP were transferred during both lactation and gestation. TPHP and ITPs were rapidly metabolized by the dams and were not detected in whole tissue homogenates. However, diphenyl phosphate (DPHP) and mono-isopropylphenyl phenyl phosphate (ip-PPP) were detected in urine from the dosed animals. This study is the first to confirm ip-PPP as a urinary metabolite of ITPs and establish a pharmacokinetic profile of FM 550 in a mammalian model.

Firemaster 550 ;: lactational transfer ;: gestational transfer; metabolites; rodent.