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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

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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.

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Acknowledgments

The present work was carried out with the financial support provided by (1) EU (COMPRENDO Project n° EVK1-CT-2002-00129) and (2) MIUR COFIN-2006 Research Project. In addition, the authors are particularly grateful to Prof. Silvana Galassi and Dr Marco Merlin for their indispensable help and valuable collaboration in the research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 26, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Michela Sugni, Valentina Manno, Alice Barbaglio, Daniela Mozzi, Francesco Bonasoro, Paolo Tremolada & M. Daniela Candia Carnevali

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  1. Michela Sugni
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  2. Valentina Manno
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  3. Alice Barbaglio
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  4. Daniela Mozzi
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  5. Francesco Bonasoro
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  7. M. Daniela Candia Carnevali
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Correspondence to Michela Sugni.

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Sugni, M., Manno, V., Barbaglio, A. et al. 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. Cell Biol Toxicol 24, 573–586 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10565-008-9057-y

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