Profiling the novel impacts of the organochlorine compounds tris(4-chlorophenyl) methane (TCPM) and tris(4-chlorophenyl) methanol (TCPMOH) on human placental cells

TCPMOH is thought to be a metabolite of TCPM. These chemicals persist in the environment, and have been found to accumulate in aquatic mammal tissue and in human breast milk.

They are also potential endocrine disruptors, yet no studies evaluating potential toxic effects have been conducted in the placenta, a transient organ with many endocrine functions critical for fetal development. In this study, TCPM and TCPMOH were screened for its cytotoxic effects, differential gene expression, invasion capacity, and changes to cell cycling. For cell viability and cytotoxicity, HTR-8/SVneo cells were treated with medium plus DMSO (control) or TCPM or TCPMOH (1 µM – 100 µM) for 24-hours and cytotoxicity was measured using Multiplex Multitox Cytotoxicity Assay.