RESUMEN
Environmental estrogens are substances that imitate the effects of endogenous estrogens. Effluents from municipal wastewater treatment plants are known to contain substances with estrogenic activity including steroidal estrogens and xenoestrogens. In the current study, a combination of biological and chemical analysis was applied to determine the estrogenic activity in municipal wastewater effluents in Finland. The male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) hepatocyte assay with vitellogenin induction as an endpoint was used for the detection of estrogenic activity in solid phase extracts of wastewater effluents, and 17beta-estradiol (E2) as a positive control. The wastewater extracts and E2 were found to induce vitellogenin production. The extracts were also subjected to chromatographic fractionation and the collected fractions were assayed. The only active fraction was the one in which E2, estrone and ethynylestradiol were eluted. Its activity corresponded to the activity of the original wastewater extract. The LC-MS/MS analyses of the wastewater extracts showed that the concentration of estrone was about 65 ng L(-1), the concentration of E2 was less than 1 ng L(-1), while estriol and 17alpha-ethynylestradiol could not be detected. These findings showed that the activity of the wastewater extracts and the chromatographic fraction was much higher than the activity which could have been expected on the base of the chemical analysis. This strongly indicates that other compounds, possibly acting by additivity or synergism, are playing a major role in the induced vitellogenin production by the hepatocytes.
Asunto(s)
Estrógenos/análisis , Smegmamorpha/metabolismo , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/análisis , Animales , Células Cultivadas , Cromatografía Líquida de Alta Presión , Sinergismo Farmacológico , Estrona/análisis , Estrona/aislamiento & purificación , Etinilestradiol/análisis , Cromatografía de Gases y Espectrometría de Masas , Hepatocitos/química , Masculino , Extracción en Fase Sólida , Vitelogeninas/metabolismo , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/aislamiento & purificaciónRESUMEN
Endocrine disrupting compounds are chemicals that may interfere with the endocrine system causing severe effects in organisms. The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus L.) offers a potential for the assessment of endocrine disruption caused by a) estrogenic xenobiotics through the estrogen-dependent protein vitellogenin and b) androgenic xenobiotics through the androgen-dependent protein spiggin. The stickleback is presently the only known fish species with a quantifiable androgen and anti-androgen biomarker endpoint. In the current study, hepatocyte and kidney primary cell cultures and liver and kidney tissue slice cultures were prepared and used for detecting estrogenic or androgenic activity in vitro through the action of hormones or municipal sewage water. The results indicate that stickleback male hepatocyte cultures are suitable in detecting estrogenic activity and stickleback female kidney tissue slice cultures in detecting androgenic activity. The tested sewage water showed high estrogenic activity but no significant androgenic activity. Primary cell and tissue slice cultures isolated from the three-spined stickleback will allow simultaneously screening in vitro for potential estrogenic and androgenic activity of complex samples.
Asunto(s)
Andrógenos/toxicidad , Estrógenos/toxicidad , Antagonistas de Hormonas/toxicidad , Smegmamorpha/fisiología , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/toxicidad , Animales , Bioensayo , Biomarcadores/metabolismo , Células Cultivadas , Femenino , Proteínas de Peces/metabolismo , Hepatocitos/efectos de los fármacos , Hepatocitos/metabolismo , Riñón/efectos de los fármacos , Riñón/metabolismo , Hígado/efectos de los fármacos , Hígado/metabolismo , Masculino , Aguas del Alcantarillado/efectos adversos , Técnicas de Cultivo de Tejidos , Vitelogeninas/metabolismoRESUMEN
Efficacy of mineral oil-based experimental injection vaccines against Flavobacterium psychrophilum were tested in rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), under laboratory and field conditions. The vaccines consisted of formalin- or heat-inactivated whole bacterium cell preparations of two different serotypes (Fd and Th) or a combination of serologically different F. psychrophilum (Fd and/or Th and/or Fp(T);Th). Specific antibody responses against the bacterium in plasma and skin mucus were evaluated post-vaccination with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Efficacy of the vaccinations was determined by challenge trials to F. psychrophilum with the vaccinated rainbow trout. Significantly higher antibody levels in plasma were detected in vaccinated fish compared with mock-vaccinated fish. Injection vaccination did not trigger specific antibody production in the skin mucus. Significantly higher survival of i.p. vaccinated fish compared with non-vaccinated fish was observed during the challenge. The results suggest that mineral oil-based injectable vaccines containing formalin- or heat-inactivated virulent cells of F. psychrophilum effectively triggered specific antibody production and protected the fish against bacterial cold water disease.