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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>This release can be found
in the USGS Newsroom at: <a
href="http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2228">http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2228</a>.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>News Release </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>June 3, 2009 </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Laura Robertson
304-724-4579 lrobertson@usgs.gov </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Diane Noserale
703-648-4333 dnoseral@usgs.gov </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>One Step Closer to
Understanding Fish Health in Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Estrogen Linked to Lowered
Immunity in Fish </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Exposure to estrogen
reduces production of immune-related proteins in fish. This suggests that
certain compounds, known as endocrine disruptors, may make fish more
susceptible to disease. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>The research may provide
new clues for why intersex fish, fish kills and fish lesions often occur
together in the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers. The tests were conducted in a
lab by scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>The study, led by USGS
genomics researcher Dr. Laura Robertson, revealed that largemouth bass injected
with estrogen produced lowered levels of hepcidin, an important iron-regulating
hormone in mammals that is also found in fish and amphibians. This is the
first published study demonstrating control of hepcidin by estrogen in any
animal. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Besides being an important
iron-regulating hormone, researchers also suspect that hepcidin may act as an
antimicrobial peptide in mammals, fish and frogs. Antimicrobial peptides are
the first line of defense against disease-causing bacteria and some fungi and
viruses in vertebrate animals. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>“Our research
suggests that estrogen-mimicking compounds may make fish more susceptible to
disease by blocking production of hepcidin and other immune-related proteins
that help protect fish against disease-causing bacteria,” said Robertson.
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>USGS researchers Drs.
Vicki Blazer and Luke Iwanowicz have previously found intersex occurring in
fish in the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers. Intersex is primarily revealed in
male fish that have immature female egg cells in their testes. Because other
studies have shown that estrogen and estrogen-mimicking compounds can cause
intersex, the co-occurrence of fish lesions, fish kills and intersex in these
two rivers suggested to USGS scientists that estrogen-mimicking compounds could
be involved in the fish lesions and fish kills in addition to being a possible
cause of intersex traits. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>That caused Robertson and
her colleagues to investigate how estrogen could be affecting the immune system
in these fish. The study showed that largemouth bass produced two
different hepcidin proteins. Production of the first hepcidin protein was
“turned down” by estrogen. Production of the second hepcidin
protein by fish exposed to bacteria was blocked by estrogen. The fact
that estrogen blocked production of hepcidins in fish exposed to bacteria gives
more weight to the theory that estrogen or estrogen-mimicking chemicals could
be making fish more susceptible to diseases, Robertson added. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Hepcidin could protect
against bacterial infection in two ways. “First,” said
Robertson, “hepcidin could be an antimicrobial peptide that actually
kills pathogens. Or it could be more complex. To live, a microbe must have
iron, so when a microbe invades a person or animal, that microbe must obtain
iron from its host. To ‘fight’ the microbe, a host can ‘suck
up iron’ and store it in places inaccessible to the microbe. In mammals,
hepcidin is a key player in how the host takes up and stores iron.” </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman Greek","serif";
color:navy'>The study, Identification of centrarchid hepcidins and evidence
that 17β-estradiol disrupts constitutive expression of hep</span><span
style='color:navy'>cidin-1 and inducible expression of hepcidin-2 in largemouth
bass (Micropterus salmoides), was just published in the journal, Fish &
Shellfish Immunology. The authors are USGS scientists Laura Robertson, Luke
Iwanowicz and Jamie Marie Marranca. </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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12.0pt;margin-left:.5in'><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>USGS provides science for
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<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:navy'>Catherine Puckett </span><o:p></o:p></p>
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