Objective

The effects of ammonium perchlorate on developing Xenopus embryos that were exposed for four days in a FETAX tests.

Ammonium perchlorate has applications in munitions, primarily as an oxidizer for solid rocket and missile propellants. It is also used as an air-bag inflator in the automotive industry, in fireworks, and as a component of agricultural fertilizers. Because of these uses and ammonium perchlorate’s high solubility, chemical stability, and persistence, it has become widely distributed in surface and ground water systems particularly in the southwestern United States. There is little information about the effects of perchlorate in these systems on the aquatic life that inhabits them. However, it is known that perchlorate is an endocrine disrupting chemical that interferes with normal thyroid function and that, in vertebrates, thyroid dysfunction impacts both growth and development.

The objectives of this project were to examine the long-term effects of perchlorate on developing amphibians (e.g., growth, metamorphosis) and on the general health and reproductive capacity of adult females. The studies examined the effects of perchlorate present in the water as well as perchlorate available through the food chain. Because perchlorate competes for iodine binding sites in the thyroid, the addition of iodine to culture water was examined to determine if perchlorate effects can be mitigated. Finally, perchlorate is known to affect normal pigmentation of amphibian embryos. This project sought to examine the effects of ultraviolet irradiation on pigment-altered embryos.