Development of in vivo and in vitro assays to evaluate the physiological effects of environmental estrogens in fish
- Univ. of Guelph, Ontario (Canada). Dept. of Zoology
There are many reports of environmental chemicals that may act as estrogens by binding to the nuclear 17-{beta} estradiol (E{sub 2}) receptor. Experiments were conducted to evaluate whether the plant sterol {beta}-sitosterol and the detergent nonylphenol interact with hepatic estrogen receptors in fish. These compounds are estrogenic in mammals and are found in treated industrial and municipal sewage waters and in pulp and paper mill effluents. Specific high affinity binding sites were characterized in rainbow trout. Nonylphenol and sitosterol were found to have relative affinities of 0.009 and 0.0001 compared to E{sub 2}. To determine if these compounds act as E{sub 2} agonists, their ability to induce estrogen dependent processes was monitored. Induction of estrogen receptors is a common E{sub 2} dependent effect. While other groups have shown in other systems that induction of hepatic E2 receptor levels was estrogen dependent, the authors found that E{sub 2} did not increase E{sub 2} binding in goldfish. However, using isolated goldfish hepatocytes cells, E{sub 2}, sitosterol and nonylphenol induced vitellogenin production. Current studies are aimed at evaluating the structure and activity relationships of these compounds responsible for causing E{sub 2} binding and vitellogenin inductions. Other means to evaluate E{sub 2} binding in goldfish liver are also being investigated.
- OSTI ID:
- 197548
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-9511137--; ISBN 1-880611-03-1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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