PARENT SESSION
18 - Endocrine Disruption
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM, Monday, 13 May 2002
Exhibition Area

(18-30) Possible influence of sewage plant effluents on gonad histology and hsp70/hsp90 levels in Gammarus fossarum (Amphipoda).

Mösenfechtel, Anna-Maria^*,1, Schirling, Martin¹, Nagel, Roland², Köhler, Heinz-R.¹, Triebskorn, Rita^1,3, ¹ University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany^{2 3}

ABSTRACT- Possible influence of sewage plant effluents on gonad histology and hsp70/hsp90 levels in Gammarus fossarum (Amphipoda).
Mösenfechtel A.-M.¹, Schirling M.¹, Nagel R.² , Köhler H.-R.¹, Triebskorn R.^1,3. ¹Animal Physiological Ecology, University of Tübingen, Germany; ²Hydrobiology, University of Technology Dresden, Germany, ³Steinbeis-Transfer Center for Ecotoxicology and Ecophysiology Rottenburg, Germany. Within the XeHoGamm project* investigations were carried out on several levels of biological organization regarding possible endocrine effects on Gammarus fossarum. Two test streams were selected for the investigations (Körsch, Baden-Wuerttemberg; Lockwitzbach, Saxony). Gammarids from two different size classes (M: 6-9mm, L: 9-12mm) were caught upstream and downstream a sewage treatment plant (STP) twice a year (May and September 2000 and 2001). By means of a range of histological and biochemical techniques, the following parameters were investigated: the maturity-status of the female gonad, the developmental stage of females, the number of atretic follicles, the size of selected oocyte stages and the hsp70 and 90 levels in entire animals. In both size classes different maturity stages of oocytes were determined and females appeared further developed downstream of both STPs. Atretic cells were found throughout all stages of maturity; in younger animals, more atretic cells were found downstream the STP at Lockwitzbach. Oocyte size increased with increasing development of the ovaries. EVO-cells were larger in animals residing downstream at the Lockwitzbach than upstream; this was not the case at the Körsch. Both hsp90 and hsp70 levels were regularly higher downstream than upstream (with a single exception at the Körsch). The hsp90 versus hsp70 ratio correcting a potential stress action on the endocrine signal transduction system (hsp90) for non-specific stress effects (hsp70) regularly showed higher values at the Körsch (where the influence of sewage water is comparatively high) than at the Lockwitzbach. *(financed by the German Gederal Environmental Agency (UBA))

Key words: Histology, Gammarus, endocrine disruption