Hypoxia modifies the response to flutamide and linuron in male three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)

Hypoxia is a major stressor in aquatic environments and it is frequently linked with excess nutrients resulting from sewage effluent discharges and agricultural runoff, which often also contain complex mixtures of chemicals. Despite this, interactions between hypoxia and chemical toxicity are poorly understood. We exposed male three-spined stickleback during the onset of sexual maturation to a model anti-androgen (flutamide; 250 μg/L) and a pesticide with anti-androgenic activity (linuron; 250 μg/L), under either 97% or 56% air saturation (AS). We assessed the effects of each chemical, alone and in combination with reduced oxygen concentration, by measuring the transcription of spiggin in the kidney, as a marker of androgen signalling, and 11 genes in the liver involved in some of the molecular pathways hypothesised to be affected by the exposures. Spiggin transcription was strongly inhibited by flutamide under both AS conditions. In contrast, for linuron, a strong inhibition of spiggin was observed under 97% AS, but this effect was supressed under reduced air saturation, likely due to interactions between the hypoxia inducible factor and the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) pathways. In the liver, hypoxia inducible factor 1α was induced following exposure to both flutamide and linuron, however this was independent of the level of air saturation. This work illustrates the potential for interactions between hypoxia and pollutants with endocrine or AhR agonist activity to occur, with implications for risk assessment and management. [Display omitted] •Flutamide strongly inhibits spiggin transcription under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions.•Linuron inhibited spiggin transcription under normoxia but not under hypoxia.•We hypothesise that hypoxia suppresses linuron toxicity via interactions between the AhR and HIF pathways.•Flutamide and linuron induced hif1α transcription independently of the level of air saturation. Hypoxia modifies the toxicity of the anti-androgenic chemical, linuron, potentially via interactions with the aryl hydrocarbon receptor pathway.