title: Echinoderm regenerative response as a sensitive ecotoxicological test for the exposure to endocrine disrupters: effects of p,p'DDE and CPA on crinoid arm regeneration.
abstract: Echinoderms are valuable test species in marine ecotoxicology and offer a wide range of biological processes appropriate for this approach. Regenerating echinoderms can be regarded as amenable experimental models for testing the effects of exposure to contaminants, particularly endocrine disrupter compounds (EDCs). As regeneration is a typical developmental process, physiologically regulated by humoral mechanisms, it is highly susceptible to the action of pseudo-hormonal contaminants which appear to be obvious candidates for exerting deleterious actions. In our laboratory experiments, selected EDCs suspected for their antiandrogenic action (p,p'-DDE and cyproterone acetate) were tested at low concentrations on regenerating specimens of the crinoid Antedon mediterranea. An integrated approach which combines exposure experiments and different morphological analyses was employed; the obtained results suggest an overall pattern of plausible endocrine disruption in the exposed samples, showing that processes such as regenerative growth, histogenesis, and differentiation are affected by the exposure to the selected compounds. These results confirm that (1) regenerative phenomena of echinoderms can be considered valuable alternative models to assess the effects of exposure to exogenous substances such as EDCs, and (2) these compounds significantly interfere with fundamental processes of developmental physiology (proliferation, differentiation, etc...) plausibly via endocrine alterations. In terms of future prospects, taking into account the increasing need to propose animal models different from vertebrates, echinoderms represent a group on which ecotoxicological studies should be encouraged and specifically addressed.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy. michela.sugni@unimi.it
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sugni
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Manno
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barbaglio
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mozzi
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bonasoro
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tremolada
authors.forename: M Daniela
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Candia Carnevali
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000187:drug effects; D017373:Cyproterone Acetate / Q000633:toxicity*; D003632:Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane / Q000633:toxicity*; D004447:Echinodermata / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D052244:Endocrine Disruptors / Q000633:toxicity*; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005121:Extremities / Q000502:physiology*; D012038:Regeneration / Q000187:drug effects*; D018675:Toxicity Tests
chemical_list: D052244:Endocrine Disruptors; D017373:Cyproterone Acetate; D003632:Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethane