Steroid hormones in the aquatic environment may pose a risk to fish health. Here we evaluated effects of two different class steroids that frequently occur in the aquatic environment, the androgen androstenedione (A4) and the progestin 17α-hydroxyprogesterone (17-OHP4). Zebrafish embryos were exposed to four concentrations of A4 and the positive control testosterone and to 17-OHP4, and transcriptional changes were determined at 96 h post fertilization (hpf) and 120 hpf. Transcriptional changes of 18 selected genes were assessed upon exposure to measured concentrations of 0.004, 0.046, 0.62 and 6.56 μg/L A4. Significant induction of the genes encoding sulfotransferase (sult2st3) and aromatase (cyp19b) occurred in 120 hpf embryos at 6.56 μg/L A4 and 1 μg/L testosterone. Additionally, cyp2k7 was significantly induced in two of three independent experiments. 17-OHP4 did not induce physiological effects (muscle contraction, heart rate, hatching success, swimming activity) at concentrations between 0.01 and 10 μg/L. Of the analyzed 15 genes, slight transcriptional alterations occurred for the genes encoding progesterone receptor, aromatases (cyp19a) and (cyp19b) and cyp2k7 at 10 μg/L. Our study highlights sult2st3, cyp19b and cyp2k7 as potential markers of androgen exposure in fish and indicates that 17-OHP4 is not likely to pose a risk for fish at environmental concentrations.

水生环境中的类固醇激素可能对鱼类健康构成威胁。在这里，我们评估了两种在水生环境中频繁发生的类固醇的作用，雄激素雄烯二酮（A4）和孕激素17α-羟基孕酮（17-OHP4）。斑马鱼的胚胎暴露于四种浓度的A4和阳性对照睾丸激素以及17-OHP4，并在受精后96 h（hpf）和120 hpf下确定转录水平。暴露于0.004、0.046、0.62和6.56μg/ L A4的测量浓度下，评估了18个选定基因的转录变化。在120 hpf的胚胎中，分别以6.56μg / L A4和1μg/ L睾丸激素诱导了磺基转移酶（sult2st3）和芳香化酶（cyp19b）编码基因的诱导。此外，cyp2k7在三个独立实验中的两个实验中被显着诱导。当浓度在0.01和10μg/ L之间时，17-OHP4不会引起生理影响（肌肉收缩，心率，孵化成功，游泳活动）。在分析的15个基因中，以10μg/ L编码的孕激素受体，芳香酶（cyp19a）和（cyp19b）和cyp2k7的基因发生了轻微的转录改变。我们的研究强调了sult2st3，cyp19b和cyp2k7是鱼类中雄激素暴露的潜在标志物，并表明17-OHP4在环境浓度下不太可能对鱼类构成风险。