INTRODUCTION: In this study, we sought to determine the sub-chronic toxicological effects of AEC on zebrafish embryos. METHODS: We utilized fish early life stage (FELS) and fish embryo toxicity (FET) tests, vascular, neurological, and renal transgenic zebrafish lines, and gene expression anal-ysis of the zebrafish tissue. RESULTS: In the FET tests, AEC caused several abnormalities in the larvae, with the LC50 at 24 hpf being 4.076 ± 0.221 mg/L and 3.296 ± 0.127 mg/L at 96 hpf. In the FELS test, AEC was shown to be lethal following 16 days of exposure at 0.5 mg/L, 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L. Some of the transgenic zebrafish lines exhibited slight changes in fluorescent signaling pat-terns after exposure to AEC at 1 mg/L and 2 mg/L. Notable results of the gene expression analysis revealed: gpx4b and got2 were downregulated in the liver
HIF1a was downregulated at 0.25 mg/L and 0.5 mg/L concentrations, NOTCH1a and fli-1 genes were downregulated at all concentrations, and A2b was upregulated in the vasculature
a1T, ngn1, elavl3, syn2a, mbp, gap43 were down-regulated in the nervous system
and wt1b was downregulated in the kidney. DISCUCCION: Altogether, the results of our study indicate the potential for AEC to cause harm to organisms.