Endocrine Disrupting Effects of TBBPA and TBP on Pelteobagrus fulvidraco

Based on an acute toxicity test on fish, an experiment was conducted on toxicity of tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA) and its degradation product of 2,4,6-tribromophenol (TBP) to growing young Pelteobagrus fulvidraco, especially their endocrine-disrupting effects. During the experiment, growth rate of the juveniles was measured and the minimum observable response concentration (MORC) and unobservable response concentration (URC) of TBBPA and TBP in the juveniles exposed to the chemicals for 28 days. Contents of vitellogenin (VTG) and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) content in viscera of the fish were also measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kits for significant difference analysis. Results show that concentrations of TBBPA and TBP and growth rate of the fish in weight displayed an obvious does-effect relationship with MORC and URC of TBBPA being 0.32 and 0.16 mg·L^-1 and MORC and URC of TBP being 0.64 and 0.32 mg·L^-1, respectively, which indicates that TBBPA was more toxic than TBP. With rising TBBPA concentration, VTG and ACTH in the fish significantly increased in content, but VTG did not show any significant response to change in concentration of TBP and ACTH declined by a large margin in content when TBP reached 0.64 mg·L^-1 in concentration. It is, therefore, presumed that TBBPA and TBP are potential environmental endocrine disruptors.