Detail

Towards a better Understanding of Toxicokinetics of Organic Chemicals

January 25, 2019, 9.30 am - 11.00 am

Eawag Dübendorf

Speaker: Prof. Kai-Uwe Goss, head of department of Analytical Environmental Chemistry at the UFZ in Leipzig.
Place: Eawag Dübendorf, FC-C20 

This talk reports on the results of recent PhD projects that help us to better understand the toxicokinetics of organic chemicals.

a) Desorption kinetics from albumin: albumin is a major transport protein in blood. Many organic chemicals in blood are sorbed to albumin rather than freely dissolved. Hepatic metabolism of chemicals bound to albumin can be hindered if the desorption kinetic in the liver is not quick enough. In this work we have measured desorption kinetics, set-up a model to predict such desorption rate constants and assessed how this may potentially affect hepatic metabolism.

b) Permeability of organic chemicals through phospholipid bilayers: Up-take and distribution of chemicals in organisms depends on their permeability. E.g. in the B-assessment under REACH it is assumed that super-hydrophobic chemicals and large chemicals are hindered in their up-take and therefore are not bioaccumulative. This talk will report on our findings concerning the membrane permeability of neutral and ionizable organic chemicals and consequences for their toxicokinetic behavior.