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EVALUATION OF TRICLOSAN AS A POTENTIAL ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING CHEMICAL (POSTER SESSION)
Citation:
Foran, C. F., E. R. Bennett, AND W H. Benson. EVALUATION OF TRICLOSAN AS A POTENTIAL ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING CHEMICAL (POSTER SESSION). Presented at 20th Annual Meeting of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, Philadelphia, PA, November 14-18, 1999.
Description:
Triclosan is an industrial antibacterial agent commonly used in soaps, toothpaste and cleaners. The present investigation was designed to examine the endocrine modulating potential of Triclosan because its chemical structure closely resembles known non-steroidial estrogens (e.g. DDT, bis-phenol A). Medaka fry were exposed for 14 days beginning two days post-hatch to Triclosan (100 ppb, 10 ppb, 1 ppb), 17-b estradiol (E2; 1 ppb), or a solvent control (ethanol). Two months post-exposure, the phenotypic sex of each adult was assessed using sexually dimorphic fin shape and size. The proportion of females in each group was similar for Triclosan exposed animals and solvent-treated controls (ethanol 53%, 1 ppb 58%, 10 ppb 45%, 100 ppb 36%) although E2 exposure did produce 92% female adults. As a result of this exposure we became interested in the potential effects of Triclosan and E2 on the development of sexually dimorphic fin traits. Following the same protocol, we exposed a second group of medaka fry to 100 ppb, 150 ppb, and 200 ppb Triclosan. Although there was no difference in the sex ratio of the resulting adults when compared to ethanol-treated controls (53%, 52%, and 56% female respectively), there were significant differences in fin length normalized by body length. As expected, males had longer dorsal and anal fins than females. In addition, the dorsal fins of ethanol-treated animals were longer than those of animals treated with E2, 200 ppb, or 150 ppb of Triclosan with trace amounts of dioxin.