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Updated: Jul 3, 2026

Screening for Endocrine Activity in Water Using Commercially-available In Vitro Transactivation Bioassays
Published on: December 4, 2016
Sonophotocatalysis of endocrine-disrupting chemicals
Toshinobu Tokumoto1, Katsutoshi Ishikawa, Tsubasa Furusawa
1Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, National University Corporation Shizuoka University, Shizuoka 422-8529, Japan. sbttoku@ipc.shizuoka.ac.jp
Abstract:
Sonolysis and photolysis often exhibit synergistic effects in the degradation of organic molecules. An assay of fish oocyte maturation provides an appropriate experimental system to investigate the hormonal activities of chemical agents. Oocyte maturation in fish is triggered by maturation-inducing hormone (MIH), which acts on receptors on the oocyte surface. A synthetic estrogen, diethylstilbestrol (DES), possesses inducing activity of fish oocyte maturation, and a widely used biocide, pentachlorophenol (PCP), exhibits a potent inhibitory effect on fish oocyte maturation. In this study, the effects of the combined treatment by sonolysis with photolysis (sonophotocatalysis) to diminish the hormonal activity of DES and the maturation preventing activity of PCP was examined. By sonophotocatalysis, hormonal activity of DES was completely lost within 30 min and the inhibiting activity of PCP was lost within 120 min. These results demonstrated that sonophotocatalysis is effective for diminishing the endocrine-disrupting activity of chemical agents.
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