Marine Fish Endocrine Disruption
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2014) | Viewed by 47265
Special Issue Editor
Interests: endocrine disruptors; marine fish; hermaphrodite; immune response; reproduction
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Endocrine disruptors (EDs) are a structurally diverse group of compounds that may adversely affect the health of humans, wildlife and fisheries, or their progenies, through their interaction with the endocrine system. Over the past decade, the list of chemicals known to have endocrine disrupting functions has dramatically increased. EDs have both synthetic and natural sources, among them organic chemicals used heavily in the past, especially in industry and agriculture, and others currently used as human and veterinary pharmaceuticals. EDs are resistant to environmental degradation and are considered ubiquitous contaminants as many have the ability to bioaccumulate and biomagnify in different environmental compartments, including marine biota. Thus, EDs range across all continents and oceans. The biological potency of EDs is higher than that of natural hormones, so even very low environmental concentrations may be sufficient to have detrimental biological effects.
EDs cause disruption by altering normal hormone levels, inhibiting or stimulating the production and metabolism of hormones, or by changing the way hormones travel through the body, thus affecting the functions that these hormones control. And since hormones control all aspects of physiology throughout the lifespan, the same can be expected from EDs. Many known EDs are estrogenic, affecting particularly reproductive functions and early life survival of fish and jeopardising whole populations. Moreover, studies on steroid synthesis and metabolism and on the possible effects of EDs on functions other than reproduction, including the immune response and growth, may help identify specific targets for endocrine disruption in marine environments. Most of the studies on the biological effects and mechanisms of action of EDs on marine organisms involve fish while studies of invertebrates are most limited in number. More data is needed to expand the list of tissues affected by EDs, and more effort is needed to identify and classify the dysfunctions they cause in marine species used as sentinels in environmental and monitoring studies, as commercial food and/or as model species.
To determine the potential impact or risk of EDs, in vivo approaches during endocrine-sensitive life stages in whole animal models are preferred. However, in vitro screening assays may still be very helpful for determining the exact mechanisms through which EDs interfere with different parts of the endocrine system. The efficacy of ED testing programmes could be enhanced by using emergent technologies in the areas of genomics and computational biology, thus providing mechanistic insights concerning exposure and possible adverse effects in animals.
As the Guest Editors, we would like to invite scientists to report their findings in the field of marine fish endocrine disruption.
Prof. Dr. Alfonsa García Ayala
Dr. Elena Chaves Pozo
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- marine endocrine disruptors
- marine species
- model aquatic species
- proteomic, genomic and epigenetic
- molecular and cellular biology
- endocrine systems
- reproduction
- biology of specimens
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