Survey of estrogenic contamination in the costal waters of East China Sea using grey mullet.

众所周知，野生硬骨鱼的内分泌和性功能障碍是由具有雌激素样功能的内分泌干扰化学物质引起的。然而，在日本和东亚，近海水域水环境中这些物质的污染现状并没有得到很好的调查。我们利用野生乌鱼(Mugil Cephalus)对海洋和河口地区的环境雌激素进行了监测。在本研究中，我们试图测定肝脏在雌激素影响下产生的主要卵黄蛋白--卵黄蛋白原(VTG)的血浆浓度。此外，我们还利用组织学技术观察了性腺的异常。湾区乌鱼的VTG水平显著高于公海捕捞的乌鱼。在日本大阪湾东京湾的雄鱼和未成熟雌鱼中，VTG水平与成熟雌鱼相同。这些地区由大量的工业和生活污水和污水供应。在雄鱼和未成熟鱼中，VTG水平通常很低(1μg/ml)，因为这些鱼的性腺中不包括卵黄生成的卵母细胞。这些结果表明，VTG的合成是由外源雌激素样物质(环境雌激素)诱导的。从韩国采集的鱼类的VTG水平高于韩国其他地方。我们将与韩国科学家中国共同启动新一轮的东中国沿海水域雌激素污染物调查。此外，我们还计划构建东亚内分泌干扰研究的科学家网络。

It is well known that endocrine and sexual disruptions in wild teleosts are induced by endocrine disrupting chemicals which have an estrogen-like function. However, the actualities of contamination by these substances in aquatic environment of coastal waters are not investigated well in Japan and East Asia. We carried out the monitoring of environmental estrogens in marine and estuarine areas using wild grey mullet (Mugil cephalus). In this research, we tried to determine the plasma concentrations of vitellogenin (VTG) which is the major yolk protein produced by the liver under the influence of estrogen. Moreover, we observed gonadal abnormalities using histological technique.VTG levels of grey mullets in the bay areas were significantly higher than the ones of fish collected in the open sea. In male and immature female fish of Tokyo Bay, Osaka Bay, Japan, VTG levels were the same as mature female fish. These areas are fed by a large amount of industrial and domestic sewage and effluent. VTG level is generally very low (<1μg/ml) in male and immature fish, because vitellogenic oocytes are not included in the gonad of these fish. These results indicate that VTG synthesis was induced by exogenous estrogen-like substance (environmental estrogen). VTG levels of the fish collected from South part of Korea were higher than another place of Korea.We will start the new survey of estrogenic contaminations in costal waters in the East China Sea with scientist of Korea and China. Moreover, we have a plan to construct the network of scientist for the research of endocrine disruption in East Asia.