Aims: This study investigated the effect of some cyanobacterial exudates on the level of sex hormones in a mammalian model and to identify the molecules that could act as endocrine disruptor.
Methods and results: In this study, the cytotoxicity of purified exudates of some axenic cyanobacterial cultures (Nostoc ellipsosporum, Nostoc muscorum, Anabaena oryzae & Anabaena. sp.) was evaluated against normal melanocyte cell line (HFB4). The intraperitoneal injection of the cyanobacterial exudates demonstrated a marked disturbance in the serum level of testosterone, progesterone, follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) of male mice. GC-MS and LC-MS/MS analysis showed the presence of some sterol-like compounds in the cyanobacterial filtrates.
Conclusions: This work demonstrated that the nontoxic cyanobacterial species have the ability to produce some bioactive compounds into their surroundings that can disrupt the mammalian reproductive hormones.
Significance and impact of study: The cyanobacterial extracellular bioactive molecules can affect on the production of the sex hormones via positive and negative feedback and may be a risk to human beings.
Keywords: cyanobacteria; cytotoxicity; sex hormones; sterol-like compounds.
© 2013 The Society for Applied Microbiology.