Concern about these and similar incidents led to federal legislation requiring a listing of chemicals that interfere with the endocrine system in humans and wildlife. The center became involved with endocrine disrupters because many chemicals that create tumors in trout also affect the endocrine system. In addition, trout are extremely sensitive to xenoestrogens in the environment, said Williams, whose research on these substances is in its early stages. With the arrival of Phil McFadden in 1990, the OSU center branched into another area of environmental concern-neurotoxins, or substances that damage the nervous system. The movement of nutrients in nerve cells, or neurons, holds the key to understanding how nerve gases and other environmental chemicals affect the nervous system.
Nerve cells are very long.
For instance, one will stretch from the backbone to the fingertips. Nutrients travel slowly in nerve cells, he explained, taking a week to travel from the shoulder to the fingertip. Any interruption of the nutrient flow, such as by a compound in the environment, damages or destroys the nerve. To study the flow of nutrients, McFadden turned to fish as a model system that is similar to humans. He has perfected a technique that involves rapid color changes in fish cells.