Houston, also known as the “Bayou City”, has a complex network of waterways surrounding and interweaving throughout the city. They work as a storm water runoff system to help prevent flooding, but many communities use the watersheds for recreational purposes. Local patrons boat, fish and swim in the bayous, unaware of the chemicals and pollutants lurking in the water. Current studies in our lab show that there are high concentrations of arsenic, mercury, chromium, lead and zinc in the water. We hypothesize that the metals and chemical compounds identified could cause the water to have deleterious effects on living organisms occupying the watersheds or using its recourses. Water samples have been collected in triplicates from 5 major bayous including Greens Bayou, White Oak Bayou, Halls Bayou, Hunting Bayou, and Buffalo Bayou. The methods include turning the water sample to a PBS solution that will not be detrimental to the cells, then serial dilute the samples in media for varying concentrations (control or 0%, 12%, 25%, 50%, 100%) and test the concentration on the HT29 colon cells using a cytotoxicity assay and proliferation assays at 48-hour time points. We observed a linear decrease in viable cells as the concentration of bayou water sample increases. Future studies include treating FHC colon cells with the same bayou water concentrations to compare to the HT29 cellular response and investigate the cytotoxic cellular effect with media containing the chemical elements at the concentrations determined from the chemical analysis. Research will continue by identifying cell signaling and cell death pathways of both HT29 and FHC cell subjected to the bayou water samples.

Deleterious effects of urban watersheds on HT29 colon cells

2019 Fall National Meeting

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