Environmentally relevant concentrations of 17a-ethinylestradiol (EE2) interfere with the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I system in developing bony fish

The aim of this study was to evaluate whether effects of environmental estrogens on fish growth and reproduction may be mediated via modulating the growth hormone (GH)/insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) system. To this end, developing male and female monosex populations of tilapia were exposed to 17aethinylestradiol (EE2) at 5 and 25 ng EE2/l water from 10-day postfertilization (DPF) until 100 DPF. Under exposure to both EE2 concentrations, sex ratio shifted toward more females and body length, and weight were significantly reduced in males. The growthreducing effect was associated with significant changes in hepatic IGF-I expression, both in males and females and with significant alterations of IGF-ImRNAandGHmRNAin the brain.The changes in IGF-I and GH mRNA were accompanied by altered estrogen receptor a (ERa) expression in brain and liver. These findings point to an influence of estrogenic exposure on the endocrine GH/IGF-I axis. In addition, the EE2 treatment resulted in significant changes of ERa and IGF-I expression in ovaries and testis, suggesting that the estrogens interact not only with the endocrine but also with the autocrine/paracrine part of the IGF-I system. Overall, our results provide evidence that EE2 at environmentally relevant concentrations is able to interfere with the GH/IGF-I system in bony fish and that the impairing effects of estrogens reported on fish growth and reproductive functions may rather result from a cross talk between the sex steroid and the IGF-I system than be toxicological.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Shved, Natallia, Berishvili, Giorgi, Baroiller, Jean-François, Segner, Helmut, Reinecke, Manfred
Format:	article biblioteca
Language:	eng
Subjects:	L53 - Physiologie animale - Reproduction, M12 - Production de l'aquaculture, L52 - Physiologie animale - Croissance et développement, tilapia (genre), développement biologique, facteur de croissance igf, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_7768, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_921, http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_34028,
Online Access:	http://agritrop.cirad.fr/547011/ http://agritrop.cirad.fr/547011/1/document_547011.pdf
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