| Title: |
Effects of ethinyloestradiol and methyltestosterone in prosobranch snails.
|
| Resource Type: |
document --> technical publication --> book / book chapter(s)
|
| Country: |
EU Projects
|
| Year of publication: |
2004 |
| Availability: |
Schulte-Oehlmann U, Oetken M, Bachmann J, Oehlmann J (2004): Effects of ethinyloestradiol and methyltestosterone in prosobranch snails. In: Kümmerer K (ed.): Pharmaceuticals in the Environment. Sources, Fate, Effects and Risks. 2nd Edition, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 233-247
|
| Author 1/Producer: |
Schulte-Oehlmann U
|
| Other Authors/Producers: |
Oetken M, Bachmann J, Oehlmann J
|
| Author / Producer Type: |
EC Project
|
| Format (e.g. PDF): |
PDF
|
|
EUGRIS Keyword(s): |
Contaminated land-->Contaminants-->Contaminants overview
|
| Long description: |
Recent reports have shown that a number of pharmaceuticals do occur not only in raw sewage but also in effluents of sewage treatment works, sewage sludge and receiving surface waters (Daughton and Ternes 1999; Kümmerer 2001). The list of pharma-ceuticals detected in aquatic ecosystems is steadily increasing while almost nothing is known regarding their potential effects on aquatic wildlife. Although concentrations of pharmaceuticals in the aquatic environment are generally in the lower ng l-1 and µg l-1 range, it has to be considered that these compounds were developed to exhibit a high biological activity, often associated with a high stability so that they are not readily biodegradable. Therefore, concerns have been raised regarding the potential impact from such compounds on aquatic wildlife even at the low reported environmental concentrations because of unknown safety factors and because accumulating compounds may attain much higher concentrations in organisms than in the water phase. In contrast to the limited ecotoxicological information which is available for most of the pharmaceuticals being detected in aquatic ecosystems, the case of the synthetic steroid 17α-ethinyloestradiol, used in oral contraceptives, provides an example that wildlife fish populations may be affected by pharmaceuticals even at the sub-ng l-1 range (Young et al. 2002). Almost nothing is known for other pharmaceuticals in this respect. Furthermore, the majority of newly started research in this field is dedicated to the effects of pharmaceuticals on aquatic vertebrates, namely fish. The potential impact on invertebrates is by far less considered although it has been shown that the same or comparable substances like in vertebrates may interfere with hormonal pro-cesses in invertebrates, affecting developmental processes, growth and reproduction and thus threatening the survival of wildlife populations (for a review: Oehlmann and Schulte-Oehlmann 2003). Studies on potential effects of pharmaceuticals in inverte-brates are important because invertebrates represent not only more than 95% of the known species in the animal kingdom, but provide also key species for ecosystem functioning and represent an even today not sufficiently characterized although extremely important part of the global biodiversity. In general, endocrine systems of invertebrates have not been as well documented as those of vertebrates, nor have responses of invertebrate endocrine systems to suspected endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) been studied with comparable intensity. On the other hand, there is now considerable evidence that prosobranch snails are affected by the same EDCs exhibiting either an oestrogenic (Oehlmann et al. 2000; Duft et al. 2003b) or androgenic activity (Schulte-Oehlmann et al. 2000; Duft et al. 2003a). It was the objective of the present study to investigate the effects of the synthetic steroids 17α-ethinyloestradiol (EE2) and 17α-methyltestosterone (MT) in the fresh-water ramshorn snail Marisa cornuarietis (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Prosobranchia). These experiments were part of a broad test program analyzing the effects of industrial chemicals and pesticides, suspected as endocrine disrupters, in a range of different snail species. During these experiments endocrine active pharmaceuticals such as the potent receptor agonists EE2 and MT, specific aromatase inhibitors, competitive anti-androgens and anti-oestrogens were used as positive controls.
|
|
Submitted By:
|
Dr Stefan Gödeke WhoDoesWhat?
Last update: 14/02/2006
|
|
|
