A number of bioassays are commonly used to detect estrogenic and androgenic chemicals in the environment. However, in vivo screening tools to identify thyroid endocrine disruptors are generally limited, and most assays cannot provide information on toxic mechanism of a given chemical. In the present study, we aimed to establish a sensitive and rapid screening tool capable of characterizing the mechanisms of thyroid endocrine disruption. We developed a novel in vivo thyroid endocrine disruptor screening system employing wild-type, thyroid hormone receptor alpha a knockout (thrαa-/-), and dre-miR-499 knockout (dre-miR-499-/-) zebrafish embryo. In addition, we verified the validity of this assay using T3, propylthiouracil, and thiamazole. Thyroid endocrine disruptors were successfully screened based on a comparison of larval survival between wild-type and knockout zebrafish embryo/larvae within 96 h. The combination of our in vivo screening assay and subsequent characterizations will be a valuable source of information for thyroid endocrine disruptor profiles.
Acknowledgement: This study was supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF; Project no. 2019R1A2C1002712).