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Variable Vitellogenin Response of Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) to Weekly Estrogen Exposure

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Abstract

Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) is a valuable model organism in reproductive and developmental toxicity testing. The purpose of this experiment is to assess the response of medaka to aquatic estrogen exposure over the course of 1 year. Each week, three pairs of adult male medaka were exposed separately for 4 days (100% static renewal daily) to 17β-estradiol at a nominal level of 25 μg/l, with a fourth pair of fish exposed separately to an ethanol control. Vitellogenin (VTG) induction was observed each week, with hepatic and plasma VTG levels significantly higher (P < 0.001) than reported for ethanol control specimens. A significant (P < 0.001) increasing trend was observed for plasma VTG results over the duration of the study, whereas a decreasing trend (P = 0.030) of hepatic VTG was evident. A Durbin–Watson test, however, did not demonstrate any serial autocorrelation of hepatic (d = 1.180) or plasma (d = 1.311) VTG levels over the duration of the study. Time-series transformations of the hepatic and plasma VTG data did not reveal any significant seasonal or behavioral patterns. However, significant intermittent peaks in VTG production were observed in both tissue types during the study. These data indicate that some consideration must be taken to time long-term medaka exposures (>20 weeks) in order to eliminate any influence of cyclic changes on plasma VTG response. Alternatively, hepatic cytosolic measurement of VTG appears to show a more sensitive response to aquatic estrogen exposure.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bethany Peterson for help with the weekly exposures and tissue collection, and Marc Slattery for graduate fellowship support for K.E.M. This research was supported, in part, by the Environmental and Community Health Research program at the University of Mississippi and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (R82-7098-010), though it has not been subjected to the Agency’s peer and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

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Author notes

  1. K. Erica Marsh

    Present address: Department of Biology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 27695, USA

  2. Christy M. Foran

    Present address: U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Environmental Laboratory, Concord, MA, USA

  3. Erin R. Bennett

    Present address: Bioengineering Group, 18 Commercial Street, Salem, MA, 01970, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Toxicology Research Program, The University of Mississippi, Mississippi, MS, 38677, USA

    K. Erica Marsh, Christy M. Foran & Erin R. Bennett

  2. Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, N9A 3P4, Canada

    Gordon Paterson

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  1. K. Erica Marsh
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Correspondence to Erin R. Bennett.

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Marsh, K.E., Paterson, G., Foran, C.M. et al. Variable Vitellogenin Response of Japanese Medaka (Oryzias latipes) to Weekly Estrogen Exposure. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 58, 793–799 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-010-9468-7

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