| Research Abstract |
In this study, we investigated the accumulation levels of environmental pollutants and their effects on the hormonal homeostasis in reproductive organs and livers of wild life or experimental animals. Especially, we focused on the effects of environmental pollutants on fish-eating wild life, since numerous lipophilic compounds were accumulated in these species.
Chlorinated hydrocarbon (CHCs) levels in the blubber of Larga seals and Ribbon seals collected from the coastal waters of Hokkaido, Japan were determined in order to assess the hormonal effects of CHC exposure. In Ribbon seals, total T3 levels significantly decreased with an increase of di-ortho PCB (PCB170 and 180) residues. We also determined the organochlorine concentrations in the breaset muscle of Steller's sea eagles and white-tail sea eagles. We detected PCB, DDT and other organopesticides at high levels, which was possible to cause reproductive toxicity. Furthermore, we investigated the accumulation levels of other heavy metals and detected tri-butyltin (TBT) in wild life at high concentration. Thus, we investigated the effects of TBT on the developing experimental animals. The pregnant rats were administrated corn oil or TBT from gestation day (GD 5) through postnatal day (PND) 25. The glial cell differentiations in hypothalamus and cerebellum of pups were transiently suppressed by TBT treatment.
|
