RESEARCH ARTICLE Environmentally relevant concentrations of benzophenone-3 induce differential histopathological responses in gills and liver of freshwater fish Sara dos Santos Almeida 1 & Vinícius Silva Oliveira 1 & Mariana Ribeiro Dantas 1 & Leonardo Luiz Borges 1,2 & Simone Maria Teixeira de Sabóia-Morais 3 & Thiago Lopes Rocha 4 & Elisa Flávia Luiz Cardoso Bailão 1 Received: 29 August 2020 /Accepted: 5 April 2021 # The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract BP-3 is one of the most used organic UV filters. However, its widespread use and release into aquatic environment can induce ecotoxicological impact on aquatic organisms. Thus, the aim of the current study is to evaluate the gills and liver of freshwater fish Poecilia reticulata subjected to acute exposure (96 h) to BP-3 at environmentally relevant concentrations (10–1000 ng L -1 ). The study was based on adopting qualitative and semi-quantitative approach to assess histopathological changes and integrated the biomarker response in order to investigate organ-specific responses to BP-3 exposure. BP-3 has induced high histopatho- logical index associated with circulatory disturbances, as well as with regressive and immunological changes in gills, whereas the hepatic histopathological index was associated with circulatory disturbances. Moreover, lower BP-3 concentrations were mostly associated with changes in gills, whereas higher BP-3 concentration was mostly linked to hepatic changes. In conclusion, acute exposure to BP-3 at environmentally relevant concentrations had stronger impact on gills than on the liver of P. reticulata, which confirmed organ-specific responses to UV filters. Keywords Biomarkers . Ecotoxicology . UV filter . Histopathology . Oxybenzone . Poecilia reticulata . Guppy Introduction Benzophenone-3 (oxybenzone, BP-3) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as active ingredient in sunscreens in the early 1980s. Nowadays, it is one of the most widely used organic UV filters (Kim and Choi 2014). Aside from sunscreen products, BP-3 is also often incorporat- ed in a whole variety of commercial products such as (i) per- sonal care products like shampoos and makeups, because it can help in preserving the scent and color of these products; (ii) synthetic products exposed to sunlight like insecticides and paints, because it works as UV light absorber; and (iii) plastic surface coatings like food packages, because it acts as UV stabilizer (Mao et al. 2019). BP-3 has also been detected in textiles and infant clothing pieces (Xue et al. 2017). Widespread BP-3 using has enabled the release of this compound, and of its derivatives, into the aquatic environment through (i) direct input deriving from swimming, bathing (non-point sources), and industrial wastewater discharges (point sources) and (ii) through indirect input, mostly associ- ated with wastewater discharge from wastewater-treatment plants (WWTPs) (Giokas et al. 2007). BP-3 was identified at concentrations ranging from 5 ng L -1 to 2000 ng L -1 in the environment (Díaz-Cruz et al. 2019; Grabicova et al. 2013) such as in river surface water (Díaz-Cruz et al. 2019; Grabicova et al. 2013), sediments (Chaves et al. 2020), sea (Emnet et al. 2015; Tsui et al. 2014), and lakes (Balmer et al. Sara dos Santos Almeida and Vinícius Silva Oliveira contributed equally to this work. Responsible Editor: Bruno Nunes * Elisa Flávia Luiz Cardoso Bailão elisaflavia@gmail.com; elisa.flavia@ueg.br 1 Laboratory of Biotechnology, Central Campus, State University of Goiás, Anápolis, Goiás 75.132-903, Brazil 2 School of Medical, Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil 3 Laboratory of Cell Behavior, Department of Morphology, Institute of Biological Science, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil 4 Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology and Ecotoxicology, Institute of Tropical Pathology and Public Health, Federal University of Goiás, Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil Environmental Science and Pollution Research https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13839-0