Laboratorio de Limnología, INIBIOMA (CONICET-UNComahue), Quintral 1250, Bariloche, Río Negro R8400, Argentina.
Environ Pollut. 2013 Jul;178:237-43. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.03.038. Epub 2013 Apr 11.
Contraceptive drugs are nowadays found in aquatic environments around the globe. Particularly, 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2) may act even at low concentrations, such as those recorded in natural ecosystems. We evaluated the physiological effects of EE2 on cyclopoids and calanoids, common copepods in both marine and freshwater communities. We used three EE2 concentrations and assessed its impact on activity of different physiological endpoints: Acetylcholinesterase (neurotransmission), Glutathione S-transferase (detoxifying system), and Caspase-3 (apoptosis). While EE2 exerts, distinctive effect on detoxifying and apoptotic systems, no effect on AChE was observed at environmental doses. Our results show that EE2 exposure affects differently copepod physiology endpoints, altering moulting process, adult recruitment in calanoids and calanoid to cyclopoid ratio. The ecological consequences of this underlying physiological process may affect since life history to population and community structures, and this represent a new aspects of this xenobiotic in natural systems.
如今，避孕药物在全球的水生环境中都有发现。特别是，17α-乙炔基雌二醇（EE2）即使在低浓度下也可能发挥作用，例如在自然生态系统中记录到的浓度。我们评估了 EE2 对环轮虫和桡足类（海洋和淡水群落中常见的桡足类）的生理影响。我们使用了三种 EE2 浓度，并评估了其对不同生理终点活动的影响：乙酰胆碱酯酶（神经传递）、谷胱甘肽 S-转移酶（解毒系统）和 Caspase-3（细胞凋亡）。虽然 EE2 对解毒和凋亡系统有独特的影响，但在环境剂量下，AChE 没有受到影响。我们的结果表明，EE2 暴露会以不同的方式影响桡足类的生理终点，改变蜕皮过程、桡足类的成虫补充和桡足类与环轮虫的比例。这一潜在生理过程的生态后果可能会影响从生活史到种群和群落结构，这是这种外源性物质在自然系统中的一个新方面。
