Characterization of the peripheral thyroid system of gilthead seabream acclimated to different ambient salinities.

Thyroid hormones are involved in many developmental and physiological processes, including osmoregulation. The regulation of the thyroid system by environmental salinity in the euryhaline gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) is still poorly characterized. To this end seabreams were exposed to four different environmental salinities (5, 15, 40 and 55ppt) for 14days, and plasma free thyroid hormones (fT3, fT4), outer ring deiodination and Na+/K+-ATPase activities in gills and kidney, as well as other osmoregulatory and metabolic parameters were measured. Low salinity conditions (5ppt) elicited a significant increase in fT3 (29%) and fT4 (184%) plasma concentrations compared to control animals (acclimated to 40ppt, natural salinity conditions in the Bay of Cádiz, Spain), while the amount of pituitary thyroid stimulating hormone subunit ß (tshb) transcript abundance remained unchanged. In addition, plasma fT4 levels were positively correlated to renal and branchial deiodinase type 2 (dio2) mRNA expression. Gill and kidney T4-outer ring deiodination activities correlated positively with dio2 mRNA expression and the highest values were observed in fish acclimated to low salinities (5 and 15ppt). The high salinity (55ppt) exposure caused a significant increase in tshb expression (65%), but deiodinase gene expression (dio1 and dio2) and activity did not change and were similar to controls (40ppt). In conclusion, acclimation to different salinities led to changes in the peripheral regulation of thyroid hormone metabolism in seabream. Therefore, thyroid hormones are involved in the regulation of ion transport and osmoregulatory physiology in this species. The conclusions derived from this study may also allow aquaculturists to modulate thyroid metabolism in seabream by adjusting culture salinity.

Identification of androgen receptor variants in testis from humans and other vertebrates.

The androgen receptor (AR) is a ligand-activated transcription factor member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. The existence of alternatively spliced variants is well recognised for several members of this superfamily, most of them having functional importance. For example, several testicular oestrogen receptor variants have been suggested to play a role in the regulation of spermatogenesis. However, information on AR variants is mostly related to cancer and androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) cases. The objective of this study was to investigate the expression of AR variants in the testis from humans and other vertebrates. Four AR variants [ARΔ2(Stop) , ARΔ2(23Stop) , ARΔ3 and ARΔ4(120)] were identified in human testis. ARΔ2(Stop) and ARΔ3, with exon 2 or 3 deleted, respectively, were also expressed in human liver, lung, kidney and heart. In addition, ARΔ2(Stop) was expressed in rat and gilthead seabream testis, while an ARΔ3 was detected in African clawed frog testis. This is the first report revealing the existence of AR variants in the testis of evolutionarily distant vertebrate species and in nonpathological tissues. These data suggest the functional importance of these novel AR forms and demonstrate a complexity in AR signalling that is not exclusive of pathological conditions.

The goitrogenic efficiency of thioamides in a marine teleost, sea bream (Sparus auratus).

Studies on the role of thyroid hormones (THs) in teleost fish physiology have deployed the synthetic goitrogens, methimazol (MMI), propilthiouracil (PTU) and thiourea (TU) that are used to treat human hyperthyroidism. However, the action of the goitrogens, MMI, PTU and TU at different levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis in teleosts is largely unknown. The central importance of the hypothalamus and pituitary in a number of endocrine regulated systems and the cross-talk that occurs between different endocrine axes makes it pertinent to characterize the effects of MMI, PTU and TU, on several endpoints of the thyroid system. The marine teleost, sea bream (Sparus auratus) was exposed to MMI, PTU and TU (1mg/kg wet weight per day), via the diet for 21days. Radioimmunoassays (RIA) of plasma THs and ELISA of the TH carrier transthyretin (TTR) revealed that MMI was the only chemical that significantly reduced plasma TH levels (p<0.05), although both MMI and PTU significantly (p<0.05) reduced plasma levels of circulating TTR (p<0.05). Histological analysis of the thyroid tissue revealed modifications in thyrocyte activity that explain the reduced circulating levels of THs. MMI also significantly (p<0.05) up-regulated transcript abundance of liver deiodinase 1 and 2 while significantly (p<0.05) decreasing TRß expression in the pituitary, all hallmarks of HPT axis action of goitrogens in vertebrates. The results indicate that in the sea bream MMI is the most effective goitrogen followed by PTU and that TU (1mg/kg wet weight for 21days) failed to have a goitrogenic effect. The study highlights the non-uniform effect of goitrogens on the thyroid axis of sea bream and provides the basis for future studies of thyroid disrupting pollutants.

Structure, tissue distribution and estrogen regulation of splice variants of the sea bream estrogen receptor α gene.

Estrogen actions are mainly mediated by specific nuclear estrogen receptors (ERs), for which different genes and a diversity of transcript variants have been identified, mainly in mammals. In this study, we investigated the presence of ER splice variants in the teleost fish gilthead sea bream (Sparus auratus), by comparison with the genomic organization of the related species Takifugu rubripes. Two exon2-deleted ERα transcript variants were isolated from liver cDNA of estradiol-treated fish. The ΔE2 variant lacks ERα exon 2, generating a premature termination codon and a putative C-terminal truncated receptor, while the ΔE2,3* variant contains an in-frame deletion of exon 2 and part of exon 3 and codes for a putative ERα protein variant lacking most of the DNA-binding domain. Both variants were expressed at very low levels in several female and male sea bream tissues, and their expression was highly inducible in liver by estradiol-17ß treatment with a strong positive correlation with the typical wild-type (wt) ERα response in this tissue. These findings identify novel estrogen responsive splice variants of fish ERα, and provide the basis for future studies to investigate possible modulation of wt-ER actions by splice variants.

Immunohistochemical detection of estrogen receptors in fish scales.

Calcium mobilization from internal stores, such as scales, induced by 17beta-estradiol during sexual maturation in salmonids is well documented. This calcium mobilization from scales is proposed to be mediated by the estrogen receptor (ER). However, the ER subtypes involved and signaling mechanisms responsible for this effect remain to be fully characterized. In the present study, we have localized ERalpha, ERbetaa and ERbetab proteins in juvenile and adult sea bream (Sparus auratus) and Mozambique tilapia (Oreochromis mossambicus) scales by immunohistochemistry with sea bream ER subtype specific antibodies. The three ERs were detected in isolated or small groups of round cells, in the basal layer of the scales of both juvenile and adult fish and the localization and signal intensity varied with the species and age of the animals. The ERs may be co-localized in cells of the scale posterior region that expressed tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP), a marker for osteoclasts. These results suggest that the calcium mobilizing action of 17beta-estradiol on fish scales is via its direct action on ERs localized in osteoclasts.

Identification of estrogen-responsive genes in the testis of sea bream (Sparus auratus) using suppression subtractive hybridization.

There is growing evidence that estrogens play important roles in both normal and xenoestrogen disrupted testis physiology. However, the mechanisms and signaling pathways involved, in particular in fish, are largely unknown. We have used suppression subtractive hybridization to isolate 152 candidate estrogen-responsive genes in the testis of male estradiol (E2)-treated sea bream (Sparus aurata). The E2 up-regulation of some of the genes (e.g., choriogenin L and H, vitellogenin I and II, apolipoprotein A-I, fibrinogen beta and gamma, and thyroid receptor interacting protein 4) was confirmed by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in fish treated with 0.1-10 mg/kg E2. Many of these genes are typical E2-induced genes in liver, and this is the first report of its up regulation with E2 in testis. Moreover, low levels of expression were also found for nontreated fish. Hepatic differential expression for these genes was also confirmed, although, contrary to testis, fibrinogen beta, and gamma were downregulated. The possible significance of these findings in normal testis physiology and in endocrine disruption is discussed.