BOTTERO , Sergio

Adult Xenopus laevis were exposed in vivo to ethinylestradiol, tamoxifen, methyldihydrotestosterone and flutamide as (anti)estrogenic and (anti)androgenic compounds, respectively, for four weeks at a concentration of 10(-8) M and to Lambro river water, a polluted river from Italy. Effects of the treatments were analysed by mRNA expression of...

The developmental stages of female germ cells were analysed in a wild population of the protogynous teleost Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe, 1834). 321 wild dusky grouper females were collected in the South Mediterranean Sea during the spawning season and their ovaries analysed using histological and histochemical techniques. Oocyte morphology,...

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The dusky grouper Epinephelus marginatus is a proteroginic hermaphrodite that exhibits a complex reproductive biology. Under captive condition most females do not proceed into vitellogenesis and do not spawn spontaneously. Sex-steroids profiles during the reproductive cycle have been recently studied in the wild (Marino et a. 1997), but no data...

Seriola dumerilii, (Carangidae, Perciformes) is a gonochoric teleost occurring in the Mediterranean Sea. Despite the growing interest for this species, little is known on sex steroid pattern during the reproductive season. Aim of this study was to verify if 17-20ß-dihydroxy-progesterone (DHP) could be involved as maturation inducing substance...

The sex steroid pattern during sex inversion in the dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus, was studied. In vivo and in vitro technoques were performed to investigate steroidogenesis and final maturation of oocytes in Seriola dumerilii during the reproductive season. Preliminary results on isolation and purification of vitellogenin in E....

Mediterranean amberjacks, Seriola dumerilii Risso, were caught off the Pelagie Islands, in the south Mediterranean Sea, between May 1997 and June 1999. Fish blood was sampled, and gonads were collected at 10-day intervals throughout the spawning period and at monthly intervals during the resting period. Concentrations of plasma estradiol-17ß...

Exposure to Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) is suspected to be the cause for the increasing number of reproductive disorders in wildlife. It is well established that many chemicals in the environment can interfere with signalling mechanisms/hormonal regulation of fish at concentrations considerably below those causing cellular toxicity....

DMRT1 has been suggested to be the first conserved gene involved in sex differentiation found from invertebrates to human. DMRT1 genes have been characterised in several species of fish, but have not been isolated in carp (Cyprinus carpio). Carp has been widely studied as an indicator of pollution in watercourses throughout South-Europe, and so...

A wide range of environmental pollutants called Endocrine Disrupters (ED) can mimic steroid hormones causing adverse health effects. Previous studies have demonstrated that bisphenol-A (BPA) represents a relevant compound within chemicals present in water and sediments coming from a polluted area of the Po plain. This study is aimed to...

African clawed toad (Xenopus laevis) has been established as a very suitable model for studying the effects of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) on reproductive biology. In a previous study we demonstrated severe alterations of testis organization (i.e. reduction of tubule diameter and number of germ cell nests and occurrence of small...

Immature rainbow trout females (Oncorhynchus mykiss, n=250) were exposed for 10 and 23 days to waters collected from the River Lambro, which drains areas characterized by severe anthropic pressure. Water was collected every two days and analysed for wide-spread xenoestrogens such as 4-nonylphenol (NP) and octylphenol (OP). Fish were exposed to...

The effects on gonad morphology, sex steroid and vitellogenin (VTG) plasma levels were investigated in k2 carps exposed to graded concentrations of tamoxifen, ethynyl-oestradiol (EE2), flutamide and methyl-dihydro-testosterone (MDHT), four chemicals chosen as prototype of anti-estrogenic, estrogenic, anti-androgenic and androgenic activities,...

Chemical analyses of bed sediments and tissues of wild cyprinids sampled downstream from the confluence of the River Lambro, a polluted tributary that drains a heavily industrialised sub-basin of the Po River, showed the presence of moderate concentrations of xenoestrogens (Viganò et al., Arch. Environ. Contam. Toxycol., 38: 209, 2000). About...

The objective of this study was to correlate morphological and biochemical parameters of reproductive activity in fish exposed to graded concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals. Two-year-old carps were exposed for two weeks to graded concentrations of ethynyl-estradiol, tamoxifen, and flutamide. For each chemical, morphological...

The genus Dyscophus, endemic to Madagascar, includes three species of large terrestrial frogs. Dyscophus guineti (Grandidier, 1875) is restricted to eastern rainforests, where it breeds in stagnant or very slow-moving water; its filter feeding tadpoles are of the characteristic microhylid type. Few information are reported in literature about...

Many diseases are the outcome of a complex inter-relationship between multiple genetic and environmental factors. Research suggests that individual susceptibility is influenced more by certain genes than by exposure to environmental agents. The startup of Human genome project has induced the activation, by NIEHS, of a companion project: the...

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A wide range of environmental pollutants commonly termed endocrine disrupters (ED) can mimic steroid hormones causing adverse health effects. Recent studies showed that bisphenol A (BPA) together with other estrogenic chemicals, may be responsible for the disrupting effects observed in fish of the middle River Po. The present study has...

Po River, the principal Italian water course, and its affluent receive compounds that can act as endocrine disrupters (EDs) in fish community. The Lambro River is a tributary of the Po River and drains a heavily industrialised and densely inhabited sub-basin of the main river; the stretches located upstream and downstream of their confluence...

In the olfactory and vomeronasal systems of vertebrates, the morphology of the receptor neurons, the receptor gene family they express, the G-protein coupled with the receptor (in particular the G-protein alpha subunit), and their projection to the olfactory bulb are correlated. Much information about this complicated system have been collected...

The Po river, the principal Italian watercourse, and its affluent collect compounds that can act as endocrine disrupters (EDs) in fish community. Lambro River, is the most polluted tributary that drains a heavily industrialised and densely inhabited sub-basin of the main river. Recently, Lambro contamination by PCDDs and PCDFs, at...

This study is a part of a project aiming to screen peptides not yet or not completely related to (anti)-oestrogenic and (anti-androgenic) chemicals to identify and characterise new biomarkers of endocrine disrupting chemicals in aquatic species. Specific aim was to correlate morphological and biochemical alterations in exposed fish to obtain...

Environmental pollutants exhibit a variety of adverse biological effects on human health. Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) can modulate differentiation, metabolism and function of the white adipose tissue (WAT) in humans through a wide range of mechanisms able to exert their effects in the whole organism. Moreover, interactions among different...