UPTAKE, DISPOSITION, AND PERSISTENCE OF NONYLPHENOL FROM WATER IN RAINBOW-TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS-MYKISS)

1. Nonylphenol is an environmental estrogenic compound. Little is know n about its interaction with aquatic species since most of the work on oestrogenic alkylphenols has been done in vitro using cells in cultur e. 2. Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were exposed to C-14-nonylph enol at 18 and 36 ppb in water to study its distribution, persistence, and bioaccumulation. 3. Nonylphenol, or its metabolites, were distrib uted through the body of rainbow trout including the edible tissues of dorsal muscle and fat. 4. Nonylphenol was rapidly taken up into most tissues and had an apparent half-life of 19-20 +/- 4 SE hours in the m uscle and fat. 5. The apparent bioaccumulation factor in viscera and c arcass ranged from 40 in carcass to 100 in viscera. 6. Three glucuroni de metabolites were separated by thin-layer chromatography following t reatment of bile with beta-glucuronidase.