Grupo de Biología y Toxicología Ambiental, Dpto. Física Matemática y de Fluidos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Senda del Rey 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Grupo de Biología y Toxicología Ambiental, Dpto. Física Matemática y de Fluidos, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Senda del Rey 9, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2018 May 15;152:132-138. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.01.034. Epub 2018 Feb 4.
Bisphenol A (BPA), a known endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) that can mimic the action of oestrogens by interacting with hormone receptors, is potentially able to influence reproductive functions in vertebrates and invertebrates. The freshwater pulmonate Physa acuta is a sensitive organism to xenobiotics appropriate for aquatic toxicity testing in environmental studies. This study was conducted to explore the effects of BPA on the Gastropoda endocrine system. The effects following a range of exposure times (5-96h) to BPA in P. acuta were evaluated at the molecular level by analysing changes in the transcriptional activity of the endocrine-related genes oestrogen receptor (ER), oestrogen-related receptor (ERR), and retinoid X receptor (RXR), as well as in genes involved in the stress response, such as hsp70 and hsp90. Real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis showed that BPA induced a significant increase in the mRNA levels of ER, ERR, and RXR, suggesting that these receptors could be involved in similar pathways or regulation events in the endocrine disruptor activity of this chemical at the molecular level in Gastropoda. Additionally, the hsp70 expression was upregulated after 5 and 72h of BPA exposures, but hsp90 was only upregulated after 5h of BPA exposure. Finally, we assessed the glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity after BPA treatment and found that it was affected after 48h. In conclusion, these data provide, for the first time, evidences of molecular effects produced by BPA in the endocrine system of Gastropoda, supporting the potential of ER, ERR and RXR as biomarkers to analyse putative EDCs in ecotoxicological studies. Moreover, our results suggest that P. acuta is an appropriate sentinel organism to evaluate the effect of EDCs in the freshwater environment.
双酚 A（BPA）是一种已知的内分泌干扰化学物质（EDC），它可以通过与激素受体相互作用模拟雌激素的作用，从而有可能影响脊椎动物和无脊椎动物的生殖功能。淡水腹足纲动物Physa acuta 是一种对外源化学物质敏感的生物，适用于环境研究中的水生毒性测试。本研究旨在探讨 BPA 对腹足纲内分泌系统的影响。通过分析内分泌相关基因雌激素受体（ER）、雌激素相关受体（ERR）和视黄酸 X 受体（RXR）以及应激反应基因 hsp70 和 hsp90 的转录活性变化，在分子水平上评估了 P. acuta 在暴露于 BPA 5-96h 范围内的影响。实时逆转录聚合酶链反应（qRT-PCR）分析表明，BPA 诱导 ER、ERR 和 RXR 的 mRNA 水平显著增加，这表明这些受体可能参与了该化学物质在分子水平上对腹足纲内分泌干扰活性的类似途径或调节事件。此外，BPA 暴露 5 和 72h 后 hsp70 的表达上调，但 hsp90 仅在 BPA 暴露 5h 后上调。最后，我们评估了 BPA 处理后谷胱甘肽-S-转移酶（GST）的活性，发现它在 48h 后受到影响。总之，这些数据首次提供了 BPA 在腹足纲内分泌系统中产生的分子效应的证据，支持 ER、ERR 和 RXR 作为分析生态毒理学研究中潜在 EDC 的生物标志物的潜力。此外，我们的结果表明，P. acuta 是评估淡水环境中 EDC 影响的合适哨兵生物。
