Effects of the model androgen methyltestosterone on vitellogenin in male and female eelpout, Zoarces viviparus (L)

Abstract

In the present experiment male and female eelpout, Zoarces viviparus were exposed to different doses of the model androgen 17alpha-methyltestosterone (MT) and the effects on the plasma level of vitellogenin and the gonadosomatic index were investigated. In females exposed to different doses of MT (nominal concentrations 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 ng/L) in the ambient seawater, the concentrations of the circulating yolk-precursor protein vitellogenin (vtg) were shown to decrease in all groups but only significantly in the MT-100 group when compared to controls. No significant effects could be observed on the GSI during early vitellogenesis (April/May). Males exposed to E2 under flow through conditions during 10 days showed an induced synthesis of vtg as depicted by a high level of circulating vtg. When the estrogen-exposed males were subsequently exposed to different doses of MT only, during another 10 days, the levels of vtg decreased significantly in three of the MT-treated groups when compared with the level of vtg in plasma of the estrogen-treated group after the first 10 days. The gonadosomatic index was observed to decrease by the estradiol-treatment but to increase in a dose-dependent manner in the MT-exposed groups, indicating that MT had the capacity to override the effect of the preceding exposure to estradiol-17beta.