由於界面活性劑、殺蟲劑及塑化劑等物質之運用，使全球各地水體皆發現有環境荷爾蒙物質，此類物質會有類似一般生物體內荷爾蒙物質之作用，改變正常功能，亦稱為內分泌干擾物(endocrine disrupting chemicals，
EDCs)，其對生物及人類之影響已引起注意。在環境荷爾蒙物質中最常被討論的物質為仿雌激素，其亦常出現於污染水域環境中，逐漸蓄積於底泥系統間隙水中而成為一污染源，並藉由分佈平衡現象而釋出回到水體。因此，以生物指標方法檢視環境中的此類物質即成為目前環境污染凡至工作之重要課題之一。本整合計畫採取不同的環境樣本，即經人工濕地系統處理後之進流與放流水、都市處理廠放流水、污染河川底泥的孔隙水等三種環境水樣，以青將魚(Japanese Medaka,
Oryzias latips) 肝臟培養細胞中卵黃蛋白先質(vitellogenin, VTG）的表現檢視其雌激素的活性。實驗結果顯示除底泥間隙水水樣無法測試外，暴露於其他測試水皆有VTG 的表現，並與暴露時間之長短有相關。 There are many EDCs found in the
water around the world because of the
usage of surfactants 、pesticides and
plasticizer. These chemicals can disrupt
normal hormonal functions in human
and other organisms. These effects have
already caused a lot of attention.
Xenoestrogen is one of EDCs can be
found in polluted water as well as in the
sediment-system. Once xenoestrogen are
transported into the sediments, the
system acts as a reservoir and
xenoestrogen can be released back to the
water because the partitioning effect.
Therefore, developing biomarkers to
detect such EDCs in different
environmental matrix became a major
issue. The purpose of this project was to
examine the activity of xenoestrogen in
the different environmental samples,
namely effluents from a constructed
wetland, a municipal sewage treatment
plant, and porewater extracted from
sediment of a polluted river. We used
expression of vitillogen (VTG) from
cultured primary hepatocytes from
Japanese medaka, Oryzias latips, as the
biomarker. Results show that, except
porewater could not have significant
outcome due to contamination of the
culture cells, other water samples tested
led to expression of VTG in exposed
hepatocytes, and the productions was
time-dependent.
