Do Triclosan affect hearing development of Cyprinodon variegatus larvae?

The aquatic environment represents the final sink for many chemicals, including bactericidal agents. Among them Triclosan (TCS) has been shown to affect the thyroid system of teleost. Larval stages are particularly vulnerable to deleterious effects of endocrine disrupters because of potential impairment of fish development and behaviour. Thyroid hormones are critical to the development of the brain and auditory system. Thus, TCS could affect the development of the brain and hearing. The aims of this study were: to investigate hearing development in sheepshead minnows (Cyprinodon variegatus) using the ABR technique (Auditory Brainstem Response) and to investigate the effects of triclosan on hearing development. Exposure to TCS was conducted from fertilization of eggs on at concentrations likely to be found in the environment: 20, 50 and 100 µgl-1.
We characterized previously the ontogenic variation of thyroid hormones in embryos and larvae of sheepshead minnows. We observed an increase of thyroid hormones level around the 12th and the 15th day post hatching (dph), that may be associated with the transition from larval to juvenile stage during the development of this species. We concluded, that this period could be defined as a critical exposure window to pollutants. We determined hearing thresholds for sheepshead minnows of different ages. Our sheepshead minnows show ontogenic variations in the hearing ability during their development. At 30 days post hatching, their hearing ability is quite bad, with a narrow bandwidth of detected frequencies. But their hearing ability considerably enhance during their development to reach the adult hearing ability at around 80 days post hatching when this species reach sexual maturity. So we observe during the developmental phase of this fish species clear ontogenic improvements of the hearing ability and they showed an ontogenetic expansion in the frequency bandwidth they were able to detect. The effects of TCS in this development have yet to be determined but will be fully discussed. This study proposes an interesting new endpoint in thyroid disruption research.