A survey of estrogenic activity in United Kingdom inland waters

Abstract

Abstract-Vitellogenin, a yolk-precursor protein normally found only in the blood plasma of sexually mature female teleosts and other egg-laying vertebrates, was used as an indicator of exposure of male rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) to exogenous estrogens. Vitellogenin concentrations were measured using a specific radioimmunoassay for trout. Cages containing adult male trout were placed at the points of discharge and at varying distances downstream of treated sewage effluent outfalls into the River Lea (UK) during the summer and winter months of 1992. After 3 weeks exposure at the majority of sites, fish held up to 15 km downstream of inputs showed an increase in plasma vitellogenin concentration, with statistically significant elevations up to 4.5 km downstream. A repeat survey in November 1992 below Harpenden sewage treatment works showed that the only two stations to give a significant response were 3 m and 1.6 km downstream of the outfall. This reduced effect compared to the first survey is thought to be due to dilution of both the influent sewage to the treatment works and of the river water itself by increased rainfall, the overall increase in dilution being approx. 36%. Trout were also placed in 15 raw water storage reservoirs in southeast England during the summer of 1993 for an exposure period of 6 weeks. No biologically significant increases in plasma vitellogenin concentration were observed in any of the reservoirs.

Derivation of an Aquatic Predicted No-Effect Concentration for the Synthetic Hormone, 17α-Ethinyl Estradiol

“…EE2 is only partially metabolized and incompletely removed by sewage treatment plants (STPs) and, therefore not surprisingly, has been detected in sewage treatment plant effluents in the low nanogram-per-liter range and occasionally in surface waters in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Brazil, Germany, and elsewhere (1-6). EE2 is not the only compound with estrogenic activity detected in STP effluents (7)(8)(9)(10)(11) although available data suggest natural and synthetic hormones represent the majority of the estrogenic activity in many effluents (12,13). Its relatively high relative biological activity (14)(15)(16)(17)(18) has led to a great deal of research on EE2, providing a far greater body of toxicity data than is available for most compounds.…”

The occurrence, causes, and consequences of estrogens in the aquatic environment

“…That step was achieved by Harries et al [3,4], who quite remarkably demonstrated that a significant length of one river in northern England (the River Aire) was strongly estrogenic. That particular river was known to contain very high concentrations of nonylphenol (NP) and related chemicals, which are degradation products of one group of nonionic surfactants.…”

“…It would be difficult to think of a more environmentally relevant parameter than reproduction when attempting 2084 All Supplemental Data may be found in the online version of this article. See Table S1 for the number of citations and rank of all the ''Top 100'' papers, which in this essay are references [3][4][5][6][7][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]19,20].…”

Circannual vitellogenin levels in Chinese loach (Misgurnus anguillicaudatus)

“…Additionally, fish are easy to work with and their endocrine systems are similar to that of higher vertebrates; moreover, studies have demonstrated that fish are suffering from the disturbance of EDCs in their habitats (Jobling et al 1998;Lye et al 1999). Therefore, most of the investigations on EDCs in the environment have focused on the aquatic system using fish as an experimental model animal (Harries et al 1996;Jobling et al 1998;Pait and Nelson 2003). Vitellogenin (Vtg) has been used as an effective biomarker to demonstrate estrogenic effects of estrogens or estrogenic compounds in aquatic environments (Sumpter and Jobling 1995;Kime et al 1999;Marin and Matozzo 2004).…”