Publication Abstract

Development of an ELISA for cod vitellogenin and its application to assessment of estrogen exposure in caged cod from the BECPELAG workshop

Development of an ELISA for cod vitellogenin and its application to assessment of estrogen exposure in caged cod from the BECPELAG workshop

A.P. Scott, I. Katsiadaki and J.E. Thain

The ICES biological effects monitoring in pelagic ecosystems (BECPELAG) workshop is a multi-national, multi-disciplinary workshop aimed at establishing suitable techniques for monitoring the effects of contaminants on pelagic ecosystems. In one initiative, cages containing cod were deployed at four stations on a contaminant gradient in the German Bight and at three stations in the vicinity of an oil field in the North Sea plus a reference area. Six weeks later, the cod were retrieved and blood samples taken for measurement of vitellogenin. The presence of this protein in the blood of male (or immature female) cod would be an indication that the fish had been exposed to estrogenic compounds. This paper describes the development of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for cod vitellogenin using a freeze-dried preparation of lipovitellin from heat-treated ovaries. This preparation was found to be stable from assay to assay and yielded antibody displacement curves that were parallel to plasma samples. Only very low amounts of vitellogenin were found in the plasma of the caged cod. In males that were caged close to the oil platform, vitellogenin levels were significantly higher (240 ng/ml) than those at the control site (50 ng/ml). However, it must be pointed out that both values are < 0.001% of the maximum concentration of vitellogenin found in fully mature female cod (ca. 50 mg/ml) and many individual values lay close to or below the limits of detection of the assay (10-20 ng/ml).

Reference:

A.P. Scott, I. Katsiadaki and J.E. Thain (2002) Development of an ELISA for cod vitellogenin and its application to assessment of estrogen exposure in caged cod  from the BECPELAG workshop. ICES Copenhagen, CM2002/X:10, 15pp

A.P. Scott*, I. Katsiadaki* and J.E. Thain*

ICES Copenhagen, CM2002/X:10, 15pp