TP3 Linking Aquatic Toxicology with Ecosystem Indicators
Ballroom G, Level 4
2:10 PM - 5:30 PM, Tuesday, 11 November 2003
Chair: Anderson, Susan ,
(274) Monitoring Environmental Estrogens in the Great Lakes.
Lehr, R1, Adams, A1, Erb, J2, Knoebl, I3, Denslow, N3, Ankley, G4, Simcik, M1, Swackhamer, D1, 1 University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA2 I.A. Inc. ThreeFold Biosensor, Ann Arbor, MI, USA3 University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA4 United States Environmental Protection Agency Mid-Continent Ecological Division, Duluth, MN, USA
ABSTRACT- Monitoring environmental estrogen (EE) exposure in Great Lakes ecosystems has become an increasing concern as a result of the ubiquitous distribution of potential EE sources throughout the Great Lakes basin and the widely documented ability of these chemicals to adversely affect reproduction and development. Environmental estrogens, by definition, elicit a response through an interaction with estrogen-sensitive biochemical pathways and, as a result, EE exposure can be monitored measuring one or more endpoints throughout an estrogen responsive pathway, for example, vitellogenesis. To monitor EE exposure in the Great Lakes we measured four intermediary endpoints throughout the vitellogenesis pathway, chemical exposure, estrogen receptor (ER) binding, estrogen response element (ERE) activation and vitellogenin (Vtg) induction, at 23 different sites across all five lakes. Our results indicate that although EE exposure can be estimated independently through an assessment of each of the previously stated endpoints, these independent estimates do not necessarily concur in their prediction of EE exposure. These results underscore the importance of endpoint selection when monitoring EE exposure, suggesting that, when using endpoints associated with vitellogenin induction, the linkage between EE exposure and effect may be highly dependent upon both the chemical constituents of the exposure and the mechanism of action.
Key words: monitoring, environmental estrogens, Great Lakes, vitellogenesis