Abstract
The developmental programming of the reproductive system is vulnerable to chemical exposure. It is therefore important to evaluate long-term consequences of early life-stage exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals. The African clawed frog Xenopus tropicalis has several characteristics which facilitates studies of developmental reproductive toxicity. Here, I present a X. tropicalis test protocol, including study design, exposure regime, and endpoints for chemical disruption of sex differentiation, reproductive organ development, the thyroxin-regulated metamorphosis, oestrogen synthesis (activity of the CYP19 aromatase enzyme), and fertility.
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References
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Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank all people that have been involved in the development of the amphibian test system for developmental and reproductive toxicity, especially the PhD students Irina Gyllenhammar and Moa Säfholm, as well as professor Ingvar Brandt at the Department of Environmental Toxicology, Uppsala University, Sweden. This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council Formas, the Carl Trygger Foundation and MistraPharma, a research program supported by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra).
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Berg, C. (2012). An Amphibian Model for Studies of Developmental Reproductive Toxicity. In: Harris, C., Hansen, J. (eds) Developmental Toxicology. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 889. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-867-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-867-2_6
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