There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
A lack of knowledge persists concerning the combination of kinetics on protein and
mRNA levels of the most commonly used biomarker for estrogenic influences-vitellogenin
(VTG). Consequently, male fathead minnows were exposed to 17alpha-ethinylestradiol
(EE(2)) for 35 days, followed by an equally long depuration period in a flow-through
system. VTG mRNA levels reached a plateau after 3 days of exposure, which remained
stable until 3 days after EE(2) removal. Control levels were re-attained within 7
days of the depuration phase. VTG protein accumulated in the plasma following a two-phased
model. The first phase depicting an exponential increase lasted 15 days and was followed
by a saturation phase approaching a plateau of approximately 47 mg VTG/ml plasma.
Clearance kinetics could be described by a two-compartment open model, with half-lives
of 2.17 and 21.32 days for the alpha- and beta-phases, respectively. In addition,
a high VTG protein synthesis rate seemed to adversely affect fitness and mortality
of the fish.