College of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Biosciences, Exeter, United Kingdom.
School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, United Kingdom.
Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2021 Apr 30;12:666656. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2021.666656. eCollection 2021.
A wide range of health effects in fish have been reported for exposure to wastewater treatment work (WwTW) effluents including feminized responses in males. Most of these exposure studies, however, have assessed acute health effects and chronic exposure effects are less well established. Using an Estrogen Responsive Element-Green Fluorescent Protein (ERE-GFP)-Casper transgenic zebrafish, we investigated chronic health effects and life stage sensitivities for exposure to an estrogenic WwTW effluent and the synthetic estrogen 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). Exposure to the WwTW effluent (at full strength;100%) and to 10 ng/L (nominal) EE2 delayed testis maturation in male fish but accelerated ovary development in females. Exposure to 50% and 100% effluent, and to 10 ng/L EE2, also resulted in skewed sex ratios in favor of females. Differing patterns of green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression, in terms of target tissues and developmental life stages occurred in the ERE-GFP- zebrafish chronically exposed to 100% effluent and reflected the estrogenic content of the effluent. and vitellogenin () mRNA induction were positively correlated with measured levels of steroidal estrogens in the effluent throughout the study. Our findings illustrate the importance of a fish's developmental stage for estrogen exposure effects and demonstrate the utility of the ERE-GFP zebrafish for integrative health analysis for exposure to estrogenic chemical mixtures.
研究表明，接触污水处理厂（WwTW）废水会对鱼类健康产生广泛影响，包括雄性鱼类出现雌性化反应。然而，大多数这些暴露研究评估的是急性健康影响，慢性暴露影响则不太明确。利用雌激素反应元件-绿色荧光蛋白（ERE-GFP）-Casper 转基因斑马鱼，我们研究了接触雌激素性 WwTW 废水和合成雌激素 17α-乙炔基雌二醇（EE2）的慢性健康影响和生命阶段敏感性。暴露于 WwTW 废水（全强度；100%）和 10ng/L（名义）EE2 会延迟雄性鱼类的睾丸成熟，但会加速雌性鱼类的卵巢发育。暴露于 50%和 100%的废水以及 10ng/L 的 EE2 也会导致鱼类性别比例向雌性倾斜。在慢性暴露于 100%废水的 ERE-GFP-斑马鱼中，绿色荧光蛋白（GFP）的表达模式在靶组织和发育生命阶段上存在差异，反映了废水的雌激素含量。在整个研究过程中，卵黄蛋白原（Vtg）mRNA 的诱导与废水中测定的甾体雌激素水平呈正相关。我们的研究结果说明了鱼类发育阶段对雌激素暴露影响的重要性，并证明了 ERE-GFP 斑马鱼在暴露于雌激素化学混合物的综合健康分析中的实用性。
