Lifetime exposure to benzophenone-3 at an environmentally relevant concentration leads to female–biased social behavior and cognition deficits in zebrafish

Benzophenone-3 (BP3) is an organic UV filter widely used in the commercial formulations of various personal care products. It has been detected ubiquitously in the environment and human tissues. Recently, BP3–induced neurotoxicity has been identified as the main health risk to humans and aquatic organisms. However, most research has been focused on embryonic development, and few studies explore chronic lifetime exposure. In the present study, we evaluated the neurotoxicity of lifetime exposure to an environmentally relevant concentration of BP3 in zebrafish. Our findings revealed that continuous BP3 exposure at 10 μg/L (0.04 μM) from 6 h post fertilization (hpf) to adulthood at 5 months led to female–biased social behavioral deficits and learning and memory impairment. These neurobehavioral effects were characterized by decreased prosocial activities in the social preference test and mirror biting assay, and reduced learning and memory in a T–maze test. Furthermore, these effects were accompanied by female–specific decreases in brain weight and brain dopamine concentration, female–biased decrease of neurogenesis in the telencephalon as well as female–specific increases in apoptotic cells and expression levels of genes and proteins related to the apoptosis pathway in the brain. Our results suggest that BP3–induced social behavior and learning/memory deficits are correlated to the cell loss in the telencephalon region of the zebrafish brain. [Display omitted] •Chronic lifetime BP3 exposure reduces social preference in male and female zebrafish.•Chronic lifetime BP3 exposure decreases social aggression in female zebrafish.•Chronic lifetime BP3 exposure impairs learning and memory in female zebrafish.•BP3 inhibits cell proliferation and induces cell apoptosis in female telencephalon.•BP3–induced social behavior and cognition deficits are correlated to brain cell loss.