0000000000771064
AUTHOR
Bjarne Holmbom
Wood-derived estrogens: studies in vitro with breast cancer cell lines and in vivo in trout.
The wood-derived compound, beta-sitosterol (purity > 90%), was shown to be estrogenic in fish. It induced the expression of the vitellogenin gene in the liver of juvenile and methyltestosterone-treated rainbow trout. Structural similarities to beta-sitosterol notwithstanding, cholesterol, citrostadienol, beta-sitostanol, and 5-androstene-3 beta,17 beta-diol, an estrogenic member of the androstenic steroid group, were inactive. An abietic acid mixture (37% abietic acid, 6% dehydroabietic acid, and a remainder of unknown compounds) showed slight hormonal activity in feed, but it was completely inactive when given intraperitoneally in implants. The estrogenic component of the abietic acid prep…
PCA and PLS methods applied to ecotoxicological data: Ecobalance project
Within a case study ‘Ecobalance’, the fate and effects of various chlorinated and non-chlorinated organic compounds and some heavy metals discharged from pulp and paper mills into water, sediment and aquatic animals were studied in a recipient area of southern Lake Saimaa, SE Finland. The main aim of the project was to find an empirical link between chemical emission parameters and ecotoxicological effects expressed in the ecosystem. As part of the \‘Ecobalance’ project, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) methods were used to interpret the data of the lake area. The PLS method was used to estimate the lake area affected by mill effluents and to calculate the …
Expression of the Vitellogenin Gene in the Liver of Juvenile Whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L. s.l.) Exposed to Effluents from Pulp and Paper Mills
Juvenile whitefish (Coregonus lavaretus L. s.l.) were exposed by caging in the field to diluted effluents from three operating pulp, paper, and paperboard mills in Southern Lake Saimaa, Finland. The expression of the vitellogenin gene, used as a biomarker of estrogenic contamination of effluents, was measured using a Northern blotting method. Increased mRNA levels, the most specific and reliable evidence for estrogen receptor-mediated actions in vivo, were found in fish caged in the vicinity of one of three mills studied. This mill was found to discharge wood-derived compounds, such as sterols and resin acids, into Lake Saimaa in amounts considerably exceeding those from the other two mills…