Institute for the Environment, Brunel University , Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, United Kingdom.
Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Aug 20;47(16):9487-95. doi: 10.1021/es4019332. Epub 2013 Aug 2.
Pharmaceuticals present in the aquatic environment could adversely affect aquatic organisms. Synthetic glucocorticoids (GC) are used in large quantities as anti-inflammatory drugs and have been reported to be present in river water. In order to assess the impact of environmental concentrations of GCs, an in vivo experiment was conducted with adult fathead minnows. Fish were exposed to 0.1 μg/L, 1 μg/L, or 10 μg/L beclomethasone dipropionate (BCMD) via a flow-through system over a period of 21 days. Similar duplicate tanks served as control, with no chemical added. There was a concentration-related increase in plasma glucose concentration and a decrease in blood lymphocyte count. Induction of male secondary sexual characters and a decreasing trend in plasma vitellogenin (Vtg) concentrations in female fish were observed with increasing exposure concentration of BCMD. Expression profiles of selected genes (phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase - PEPCK, glucocorticoid receptor - GR, and Vtg) in liver also demonstrated concentration-related effects at all three tested concentrations. The results suggest that GCs could cause effects in lower micrograms per liter concentrations that could be environmentally relevant for total GCs present in the environment. Therefore, studies to determine the environmental concentrations of GCs and no effect concentrations are needed to assess if GCs pose a risk to the aquatic environment.
水环境中的药物会对水生生物产生不良影响。合成糖皮质激素（GC）被大量用作抗炎药物，并且已经有报道称其存在于河水中。为了评估环境浓度的 GC 的影响，进行了一项体内实验，使用成年胖头鱼进行实验。通过流动系统，鱼在 21 天内暴露于 0.1μg/L、1μg/L 或 10μg/L 的倍氯米松二丙酸酯（BCMD）中。类似的重复水箱作为对照，未添加任何化学物质。随着 BCMD 暴露浓度的增加，血浆葡萄糖浓度呈浓度相关性增加，血液淋巴细胞计数呈浓度相关性降低。观察到随着 BCMD 暴露浓度的增加，雄性鱼类的次级性特征诱导和雌性鱼类血浆卵黄蛋白原（Vtg）浓度呈下降趋势。在所有三个测试浓度下，肝脏中选定基因（磷酸烯醇丙酮酸羧激酶 - PEPCK、糖皮质激素受体 - GR 和 Vtg）的表达谱也显示出浓度相关性效应。结果表明，GC 可以在较低的微克/升浓度下产生影响，这些浓度可能与环境中存在的总 GC 有关。因此，需要进行研究以确定 GC 的环境浓度和无效应浓度，以评估 GC 是否对水生环境构成风险。
