Unveiling Environmental Hormones: Threats to Health and Ecosystems

Humans are exposed to thousands of chemicals when we are drinking, eating, inhaling and breathing air. Some chemicals come from industries, sewage, herbicides and pesticides used in agriculture, different drugs/ medicines and when we touch the dangerous box of chemicals which have bad effects on us. These chemicals have constant exposure on human health which can risk their life. It can cause loss of fertility, fetal development problems, damage natural hormones and damage to an unborn fetus. These environmental hormones are a growing threat to aquatic, land species and humans.

The endocrine disrupting chemicals can alter the functions of natural hormones in many ways. It can mimic sex steroid function. It can damage the hormone receptor functions and also can damage the breakdown of natural hormones. There is a direct impact of environmental hormones in the ecosystem.

I discussed below the three chemicals which can damage the natural hormones in different ways. The larvae fathead minnows were tested in CAFO mixtures depending how they respond to the gene's expressions and change with time and respond to the environments.

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There were two experiments. They observed the reaction of experiments before and after to record the changes they observed. They investigated environmental hormones with Brachionus Calyciflorus rotifers which they checked their behavior changes with respect to time before and after exposure. There is another environmental hormone called Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) causes reproductive toxicity in the human body. There were long term diseases for example breast cancer etc. The third environmental hormone disruptor is herbicide atrazine, they expose larval fathead minnows to sex steroids and CAFO mixture so they can observe gene expressions during sex.

The Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), rotifer, Brachionus Calyciflorus, and herbicide atrazine were found to be one of the environmental endocrine disruptors. They all are dangerous to the human body and play a bad role. The first one, Diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), is a plasticizer used by industries for package products like food containers etc. These are dangerous for the human reproductive system and sex. It also produces toxicity risk and can cause cancer in breast, liver and can produce tumor in humans. If DHEP remains in the body, it can be harmful for the reproductive and digestive systems. The rotifer, Brachionus Calyciflorus, can be found in areas of zooplankton in freshwater and marine habitats which can be tested for ecotoxicological studies. These can be found in harsh environments and mating is important for these species. In this study, they are studying how to observe the behavior of rotifers in mating of female - male fertilization. The herbicide atrazine is used mostly in cornfields in late spring and early summer found nowadays as an endocrine disruptor. It disrupts when subsurface tile drainage network's system goes through a ditch network system where excess water flows with herbicides, natural nutrients and hormones becoming a problem for aquatic marine and human species.

The DEHP can be detected now with several methods, for example, different liquid / gas chromatography, solid phase extraction etc. are more effective and reliable, but they are time consuming skilled technicians to detect DEHP concentration in foods that are processed in industries. To overcome these problems, there is a Surface Enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy which detects DHEP concentration in foods. They used chemicals, synthesis of nanoparticles, synthesis of AU@Ag@IP6 NPs, Functionalized of AU@Ag@IP6 NPs for hydrophobicity, SERS detection of DEHP, GC-MS detection of samples and SERS detection of real samples were conducted with Portable stabilized R. A laser analyzer with a narrow linewidth diode laser at 785 nm with adjustable power of 300mW was used to detect DEHP concentration in foods and energy drinks. They detected DEHP with two symmetric chains with poor solubility in water and sharp peaks. "the recoveries obtained by GC-MS and SERS protocol are from 94.6% to 101.9% and 93.5% to 97.8%, respectively, confirming that the proposed SERS method is a rapid technique with reliability for monitoring DEHP risk of food safety" (Wu, 2018). The SER spectroscopy has a limit of detection of 10^-8 M (S/N =3). The energy drinks have high DEHP. The SERS spectroscopy method is reasonable and affordable to detect DEHP for the food safety. The portable Raman spectrometer works for online quality control for food samples which is an alternative as compared to time consuming methods

The rotifer, Brachionus Calyciflorus, studies behaviors of rotifer and effects of environmental disruptor. They detect swimming speed which determines the strength of mating and mating behavior which refers to sexual reproduction. In the past, many studies discovered male and female mating behavior, but artificial compounds released in the environment to disrupt hormones. The experiments were conducted in with the hormones Testosterone, which is a steroid hormone, flutamide is nonsteroidal male hormone antagonist and progesterone is an important steroid estrogen. They conducted the experiment in which actual concentrations of chemicals, hormone preparation, rotifers were used and methods sexual reproduction induction, swimming behavior, copulatory behavior, fertility rate and data analysis were conducted. Rotifers B. calyciflorus males were exposed progesterone, testosterone and flutamide. To see swimming speed, collision identification time and fertilization rate to evaluate effect environmental hormone disruptors by using high speed camera to film male and females. The fertility rate of the male mating success rate was equal to the resting eggs.

The testosterone increased linear swimming speed, progesterone and flutamide decreased swimming speed. All of the regression analysis of the experiments shows quadratic functions of the concentration of testosterone. The fertilization rate changes of B. Calyciflorus males treating with different concentrations of testosterone, progesterone. It also shows males rotifers are highly sensitive to testosterone. Male rotifers have no digestive system which can lead to alteration of speed. Finally, there was a connection change in swimming and mating rates for male rotifers which give a S- shaped curve graph which affects the movement ability of males affected their reproductive capacity. The mating rate of male rotifers increased rapidly with the swimming speed. The swimming rate increased by 0-20%, and it greatly influenced the fertilization rate, whereas the decrease in the swimming rate reduced the fertilization rate by 0-20%" (Yang, 2019). The hormones interfere and react towards mating behavior and fertilization. The recognition ability of males rotifers were improved when they were exposed to testosterone. This study proves male rotifers have a relationship with endocrine disruptors

The herbicide atrazine has been considered an endocrine disruptor. They used estrogen and androgen potency of the mixture and the concentration addition to predict the negative effects of steroid mixture. In the past there were no studies where they took juveniles, larvae expose them to the mixture of hormones, pesticides and nutrients. In this study they test two experiments, in the first one they test molecular responses after expose to synthetic sex steroid hormones in which they exposed fathead minnow larvae to androgen and estrogen mixture to examine the development of gonadal change before and after the experiment. The second one tested molecular and organ response after exposure to CAFO mixture in which fathead minnow larvae were exposed to mimicked chemicals in CAFO mixture and it also included glass tanks. There was also controlled experiments to check difference before and after the experiments were conducted. After that three exposed and controlled tanks of fish were chosen to see gene expression. The activation of genes critical to ovarian development was observed when fishes are exposed to estrogenic mixture. In this study, they observed expression of genes changes over sex differentiation through exposure of potent sex hormones.

Gene expression was conducted on 20 dph larvae from both experiments. Seven genes were chosen for quantitative PCR (qPCR) using previously described methods. Double sex and mab-3 related gene 1 (dmrt1; F: 5?-AGGTCGTGGGTGATGTGAAT-3, R5?GGCCACTGCAGAGCTTAGAG-3?) is a transcription factor that is involved in sex determination. (Sassman, 2015) The gene expression study shows gonadal development is sensitive to exogenous hormones. The fishes exposed to CAFO mixture were larger and heavy as compared to the control group. When fishes were exposed to CAFO mixture were in gonadal phenotypical changes if there are molecular natural change over time. The CAFO chemical mixture during the experiment showed no significant difference. The present study shows sex responses of the early life of fathead minnows to synthetic hormones similar to their CAFO fields. In the current study we have seen the recovery of negative feedbacks form the expression of genes. This study also shows skewed relationship between males in fish and CAFO mixture. This study shows how chemicals and exogenous hormones affect gonadal organ development.

My reaction after reading these articles was surprising. I learned there are so many dangerous chemicals involved in pesticides, excess hormones, herbicides which can respond to our gonadic development during sex or mating. It also effects our human gene expressions which can have worse effects on humans, aquatic, land species etc. In my opinion, humans should be careful when they are drinking water or its better if we humans boil water so we can get rid of all bacteria which is not safe for us. The foods, vegetables and fruits need to be washed before cooking or eating purposes. I personally would carefully research on foods and drinks or anything bought from store and then eat, cook or use them for personal purpose. I would take action again these chemicals which are hormonal disruptors and damage gonadal development. After reading these articles regarding environmental hormonal disruptors, I would definitely encourage myself and others to see news, read research papers and take part in real life so we can definitely know what is happening around us. Things are becoming dangerous and beneficial for us in the world.