Abstract
Estrogen, androgen, and glucocorticoid receptors (ER, AR, and GR) agonist activities in river water samples from Chennai and Bangalore (India), Jakarta (Indonesia), and Hanoi (Vietnam) were evaluated using a panel of chemical-activated luciferase gene expression (CALUX) assays and were detected mainly in the dissolved phase. The ER agonist activity levels were 0.011–55 ng estradiol (E2)-equivalent/l, higher than the proposed effect-based trigger (EBT) value of 0.5 ng/l in most of the samples. The AR agonist activity levels were < 2.1–110 ng dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-equivalent/l, and all levels above the limit of quantification exceeded the EBT value of 3.4 ng/l. GR agonist activities were detected in only Bangalore and Hanoi samples at dexamethasone (Dex)-equivalent levels of < 16–150 ng/l and exceeded the EBT value of 100 ng/l in only two Bangalore samples. Major compounds contributing to the ER, AR, and GR agonist activities were identified for water samples from Bangalore and Hanoi, which had substantially higher activities in all assays, by using a combination of fractionation, CALUX measurement, and non-target and target chemical analysis. The results for pooled samples showed that the major ER agonists were the endogenous estrogens E2 and estriol, and the major GR agonists were the synthetic glucocorticoids Dex and clobetasol propionate. The only AR agonist identified in major androgenic water extract fractions was DHT, but several unidentified compounds with the same molecular formulae as endogenous androgens were also found.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Dr R. Tanoue (CMES) for the instrumental analysis of glucocorticoids, and all the participants of the sampling campaigns.
Funding
This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [A: 19H01167], Challenging Research [Exploratory, 19K22911], Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research) [B: 18KK0300], and by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (MEXT) through a project on Joint Usage/Research Center — Leading Academia in Marine and Environment Pollution Research (LaMer).
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N. M. Tue, L. H. Tuyen, P. H. Viet, A. Sudaryanto, A. Subramanian, S. Tanabe, and T. Kunisue planned the study and conducted the sampling. N. M. Tue and L. H. Tuyen performed the sample pretreatment and bioassays. G. Suzuki developed the fractionation method. N. M. Tue and H. Matsukami performed the LC–ToFMS analysis. All authors contributed to the data interpretation, manuscript preparation, and approval.
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Tue, N.M., Matsukami, H., Tuyen, L.H. et al. Estrogenic, androgenic, and glucocorticoid activities and major causative compounds in river waters from three Asian countries. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 20765–20774 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23674-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23674-6