Sex steroid imbalances in the muricid Stramonita haemastoma from TBT contaminated sites

Abstract

Imposex incidence, organotin tissue levels, and sex steroid (free and esterified testosterone and estradiol) levels were assessed in Stramonita haemastoma from Babitonga Bay (Santa Catarina State, Southern Brazil). The imposex levels showed a reduction when compared to a previous evaluation performed in the same area. In spite of that, the detected imposex incidence indicated the occurrence of tributyltin (TBT) inputs that were still able to produce endocrine disruption in local gastropods. In addition, a high level of organotins was observed in tissues of imposexed females. These females also showed a hormonal imbalance, especially in the total testosterone/total estradiol ratio. These findings obtained under realistic field conditions suggest that the steroid pathway could be responsible by the imposex induction after exposure to TBT. In this case, measurements of sex steroid levels can be an additional evidence for monitoring sites and impose affected gastropod populations.

Organotin compounds in Brachidontes rodriguezii mussels from the Bahía Blanca Estuary, Argentina

“…Particularly, within Latin America, a large number of studies have been reported for gastropods in coasts of Chile (Batista et al, 2016;Mattos et al, 2017); Venezuela (Paz-Villarraga et al, 2015); Brazil (Petracco et al, 2015;Rossato et al, 2016); Argentina (Del Brio et al, 2016) and Peru (Castro and Fillmann, 2012). Despite this fact, just a few studies performed monitoring programs of organotin contamination in mussels (Table 4).…”

Populations Collapses in Marine Invertebrates Due to Endocrine Disruption: A Cause for Concern?

“…In these conditions, while the animals may show a low imposex response, the animals' body burden of organotins could still be high, even higher than in more pristine conditions. Some recent results seems to indicate this possibility with animals presenting high organotins body burden with showing low imposex responses (59, 91). Some aspects of the populations used for biomonitoring have influence on the results, such as genetics, temperature influence on metabolism or even the seasonality of the reproductive cycle, a basic aspect often not considered (92).…”

Shell alterations in limpets as putative biomarkers for multi-impacted coastal areas

“…2016). In these cases, environmental impacts were directly associated with coastal areas under the influence of intense maritime activities such as ports, marinas and shipyards Rossato et al, 2016). However, areas of intense ship traffic are usually multi-impacted coastal zones that receive inputs from several harmful substances, producing biological effects either individually or pooled (Moreira et al, 2017).…”