S. Yamanaka et al., DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF AN EFFECTIVE DETECTION METHOD FOR FISHPLASMA VITELLOGENIN INDUCED BY ENVIRONMENTAL ESTROGENS, Bioscience, biotechnology, and biochemistry, 62(6), 1998, pp. 1196-1200
Vitellogenin is a protein induced by estrogens, including environmenta
l chemicals with estrogenic activity. To measure the effects of enviro
nmental estogens, we developed an effective and rapid one-step method
of detecting and purifying fish plasma vitellogenin using a high-perfo
rmance anion-exchange chromatography column, POROS-HQ, Vitellogenin in
a plasma of estradiol-treated male fish (mummichog and red sea bream)
was eluted as a single peak with a retention time of 10 minutes from
the column, which gives an almost pure preparation as assessed by SDS-
PAGE. The lowest detectable amount of vitellogenin was 2 mu g per assa
y. The method was used to analyze the plasma vitellogenin level of aqu
acultured red sea breams caught in August, when the spawning season is
over, and usually no vitellogenin is detected in either females or ma
les, physiologically. However, the data showed that in addition to a f
ew females, same male fish synthesized vitellogenin, suggesting that s
ome chemicals or unknown factors with estrogenic activity have induced
fish in the ocean to produce vitellogenin.