Application of Xenopus laevis in ecotoxicology (I)—Introduction and quality control of laboratory animal

Application of Xenopus laevis in ecotoxicology (I) —Introduction and quality control of laboratory animal

The aim of the series of papers is to discuss the application of Xenopus laevis, as model animal in biology, in ecotoxicology. X. laevis as model animal is wildly used in biological study and has provided a lot of relating data because of many advantages, such as living in water and being easily maintained, laying eggs in the whole year, and externally fertilizing and developing. Embryos and larvae of X. laevis like other amphibians are directly exposed in the aquatic environment and sensitive to pollutants. In addition, sex differentiation and sex organ development of X. laevis are sensitive to sex hormones and endocrine disruptors with sex hormone activities, which enable X. laevis to be used in studies on sex hormone disruption and reproductive toxicity of endocrine disruptors. Metamorphic development of X. laevis is very sensitive to thyroid hormones and thyroid disruptors, which enables X. laevis to be used for evaluating thyroid disruptors. Also, X. laevis ecotoxicology can be linked with amphibian population declines and malformed frog occurrence, being one of the hotspots in ecology. Thus, more and more laboratories have introduced X. laevis to ecotoxicological study. The quality of laboratory animals correlates with scientificity and reliability of results from animal experiments. It is especially important for toxicology. Quality control of X. laevis involving several factors such as water and food is discussed in this paper.