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Effects of Metformin on Growth and Appetite in Juvenile Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas)
Citation:
Pattulo, C., M. Nanna, M. P. Finegan, R. Barone, Jim Lazorchak, AND S. Allen-Gil. Effects of Metformin on Growth and Appetite in Juvenile Fathead Minnows (Pimephales promelas). SETAC NA Annual Meeting, Sacramento, California, November 04 - 08, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
This is a student project study that looked at the effects of a diabetic medicine, metformin, on feeding behavior to fish. Metformin is pharmaceutical that is detected in wastewater effluents and this study adds information on its effects on larval fish.
Description:
Pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) characterize a large class of chemicals that leach into the environment through human use and excretion. Recent quantifications of PPCPs in wastewater treatment effluent samples indicate that conventional treatment methods are ineffective at removing many of these chemicals, thus making PPCPs popular subjects of toxicological studies in the past few decades. Recent studies have shown that some pharmaceuticals can impact behaviors such as reproduction, predator avoidance, and food acquisition in some aquatic species at concentrations found in effluent wastewater. This study focuses on the effects of metformin on the growth and appetite of juvenile fathead minnows (Pimephales promelas). Metformin is a commonly prescribed medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, infertility, and more. In this study, juvenile fathead minnows were exposed for seven days to three concentrations of metformin: a negative control, an environmentally relevant concentration (1.6 µg/L), and a positive control based on recently published studies (40 µg/L). We observed a significant change in appetite when the minnows were dosed with 40 µg/L of metformin (p=0.00295). However, we did not observe any significant changes in weight gained in any dose at the end of the experiment. It is possible that there may be changes in weight if the exposure period was longer than 7-days. These results suggest that further research is warranted to investigate the connection between metformin exposure, appetite, and growth in juvenile fathead minnows.
