Androstenedione and Progesterone in the Sediment of a River Receiving Paper Mill Effluent

Abstract

The Fenholloway River near Perry, Florida, receives effluent from a paper mill and contains populations of masculinized female eastern mosquitofish, Gambusia holbrooki. A previous study identified the androgen precursor androstenedione at a low concentration (0.14 nM) in water samples from the river. The present study makes use of a toxicity identification and evaluation approach that includes solid phase extraction and high pressure liquid chromatography purification, androgen receptor transcription assays, and liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy to identify and characterize steroids in the Fenholloway River sediment. Androstenedione (2.4 nM) and progesterone (155 nM) were identified in the river sediment at concentrations greater than in the river water column (0.14 nM androstenedione, and 6.5 nM progesterone). Spring Creek, a comparison stream that does not receive mill effluent, contained low levels of progesterone (0.3 nM) but no androstenedione in the sediment. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that pine pulp-derived phytosteroids in the paper mill effluent accumulate in river sediment where they are converted by microbes into progesterone and this into androstenedione and other bioactive steroids. Equally important is that normal streams with much less organic matter still contain progesterone, but at dramatically lower levels. The presence of androgens and androgen precursors in the river water and sediment likely contributes to the masculinized phenotype of the female Gambusia holbrooki in the Fenholloway River.

Acute and chronic effects of testosterone and 4-hydroxyandrostenedione to the crustacean Daphnia magna

“…Steroid hormones undergo sorption and transformation in soils (Jenkins et al, 2003;Lee et al, 2003) and sediments (Lai et al, 2000). This fact underlines the importance of these processes in the fate and transport of hormones in environment.…”

Effects of steroid hormones on reproduction- and detoxification-related gene expression in adult male mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis

“…Three replicate tanks at each treatment were used. The exposure concentrations of hormones and exposure durations were chosen based on the previous studies (Finlay-Moore et al, 2000;Jenkins et al, 2003;Huang et al, 2012). Eight male mosquitofish fish were randomly assigned to 12 L glass aquaria containing 5 L of water, and triplicate aquaria at each treatment were used.…”

“…For examples, 17β-estradiol (E2) and testosterone (T) have been found in runoff from the U.S. grasslands amended with broiler litter up to 2530 ng/L and 1830 ng/L, respectively (Finlay-Moore et al, 2000). Progesterone (P) was detected at concentrations up to 2060 ng/L in the water column of the Fenholloway River (Jenkins et al, 2003). The presence of these steroid hormones may affect aquatic organisms (Miracle et al, 2006;Davis et al, 2007;Milla et al, 2011;Zucchi et al, 2012).…”

Steroid Hormone Runoff from Agricultural Test Plots Applied with Municipal Biosolids

“…Other research indicates that both of these compounds can be generated microbially from sterols that are likely to be present in manure as well as in biosolids. 26 In the United States, it is estimated that the average WWTP produces 240 kg dry weight of solids per million liters of wastewater treated, resulting in approximately 8 million tons (dry weight basis) of biosolids produced per year, of which about 50% is land applied. 27 Surprisingly, little is known about the potential for runoff of hormones after land application of biosolids, although some inferences can be drawn from the existing studies conducted with manure and poultry litters which indicate that hormones can be mobilized from solid material by rainfall.…”