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Aquaculture 193 2001 381–382
www.elsevier.nlrlocateraqua-online
Book review
Endocrine disruption in fish
David Kime, Kluwer Academic Publishing, Dordrecht, Netherlands, 1998, GBP102 ISBN: 0-7923-8328-1, price 340 DFL, US$150, 396 pp.
This book by David Kime of Sheffield University is a very timely book on a topic that has sprung into both scientific and public awareness in just the last decade. It had been known for many years that exposure to a wide variety of inorganic and organic
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chemicals could result in the impairment of reproductive function in fish Donaldson .
and Scherer, 1983 . However, it was probably the discovery by John Sumpter et al. that Ž
male fish in many British rivers were secreting vitellogenin a major yolk protein of .
hepatic origin into their blood streams, that led to the recent surge in scientific and public interest in the overall issue of endocrine disruption in fish.
In the opening chapters, Dr. Kime leads the reader through definitions of endocrine disruption and an excellent summary of the classes of chemical pollutants in the aquatic environment and their structures. He then discusses the critical issue of bioconcentration in fish tissues. This is followed by a description of the steroidogenic pathways involved in normal fish reproduction, reproductive strategies and the significance of pollutant impacts on fecundity, fertility and sex differentiation. Dr. Kime then compares in vitro and in vivo approaches to the investigation of pollutant impacts and this leads to two detailed chapters on the disruption of male and female reproductive functions. In the former chapter, Dr. Kime points out the important difference in estrogenic potency between true estrogens such as ethynylestradiol, which can influence sex differentiation at very low concentrations, versus environmental estrogens such as nonylphenol, which have much weaker estrogenic potencies, but also exert other toxicological effects that are not related to their estrogenic activity. In the chapter on female reproduction, Dr. Kime discusses recent research on the impact on reproduction of compounds having aromatase inhibiting activity. These compounds can interfere either with estradiol synthesis in the ovary or with feedback control mechanisms at the hypothalamic level. Subsequent chapters address the impact of endocrine disrupters on early develop-ment, liver, thyroid and interrenal function, growth, osmoregulation and the immune system. The closing chapter discusses the impact of consumption of fish containing endocrine disrupters on birds, marine and terrestrial mammals, and human populations. The text is accompanied by an appendix of tables that catalog the impact of various classes of pollutants on the fish endocrine system, an extensive bibliography, a species key and an index.
0044-8486r01r$ - see front matterq2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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Book reÕiew
382
Dr. Kime is to be congratulated for his thorough analysis of the literature on endocrine disruption in fish. This book is essential reading for biologists and scientists interested in the impact of pollutants on the fish endocrine system. It will also be of interest to researchers who wish to explore the use of fish as model systems with which to study endocrine impacts of ecorxenorenvironmental estrogens and other A gender-bendingBpollutants.
References
Donaldson, E.M., Scherer, E., 1983. Methods to test and assess effects of chemicals on reproduction in fish.
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In: Vouk, V.B., Sheehan, P.J. Eds. , Methods for Assessing the Effects of Chemicals on Reproductive Functions. Wiley, Sussex, England, pp. 365–404.
