Screening hormone activity in surface water from urban protected areas in Argentina

TAVALIERI YE; GALOPPO GH; RIVERA OE; LUQUE EH; MORA SC; FRITZ M; KASS L; MUÑOZ-DE-TORO M; TRUTER JC; BERGERO L; VAN WYK JH

Charleston, SC

Congreso; 20th Pollutant Responses in Marine Organisms (PRIMO 20) Meeting; 2019

Pollutant Responses in Marine Organisms

Protected areas (PAs) are effective tools forbiodiversity conservation and maintain natural ecosystems; they contribute tothe livelihood of local communities, to improve environmental education and tomitigate the effects of climate change. Unfortunately, PA not always guaranteesprotection for freshwater ecosystems. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDC) arecompounds interfering with hormone signaling. Omnipresent in the environment,they can cause adverse effects in a wide range of wildlife. In vitroyeast-based assays integrate the joint effects of all EDC present in complexsamples, no matter whether the causative chemicals and the mixture compositionare known or not. The goal of this study was to screening hormonal activity insurface water at potentially threatened sites in two PAs located at theUniversity Campuses of two Argentinean Universities: Universidad Nacional delLitoral (UNL), Santa Fe and Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora (UNLZ),Buenos Aires. Seven sites were selected for investigation. In vitro yeast-basedassays were used to detect estrogenic (YES), anti-estrogenic, androgenic (YAS) andanti-androgenic activities. Agonist activities were as follow: 3/3 UNLZ and 4/4UNL samples exhibited estrogenic activity (EEQ) and 1/3 UNLZ exhibitedandrogenic activity. Antagonist activities, calculated as equivalents of Tamoxifenfor YES, were exhibited by 2/3 UNLZ samples; while calculated as equivalents ofFlutamide for YAS were exhibited by 3/3 UNLZ. Antagonist activities were notobserved in UNL samples. Moreover, EEQ found in 2/3 samples from UNLZ wereabove 2 ng/l, the predicted-no-effect concentration for 17β-estradiol used inrisk assessment of aquatic organisms, whereas UNL samples did not reach thiscutoff value. Our findings confirm the utility of the yeast recombinant assayto monitoring EDC activity in complex natural samples highlighting theimportance of considering EDC in PA management to warrant PA contribution toconserve biodiversity.