Physiological assessment of individual and mixtures of putative endocrine disrupting chemicals. Individual groups of chemicals often have multiple measurable effects in an animal. For example, many chemicals such as PAHs and PCBs, that are known for liver enzyme induction also affect the reproductive system due to their possible perturbation of hormonal pathways.
Some reproductive hormones have effects on seemingly unrelated neurotransmitter pathways.
This type of approach becomes even more relevant when assessing the overall effects of chemical mixtures. In reality, wild animals are not exposed to one chemical at a time, but rather to a number of chemicals and other environmental stressors that can result in aberrant physiological effects often altering behavior. One approach to addressing the physiological complexity of environmentally relevant chemical exposure is to measure several biological endpoints that reflect exposure to specific chemicals or classes of chemicals as determined by laboratory studies. Determining the overall physiological effect of environmentally relevant mixtures provides a realistic view of potential harm to wild animals. Characterize the physiological effects of exposure to putative endocrine disrupting chemicals by measuring a number of biological endpoints in rainbow trout exposed to single and multiple known chemicals.