ArticlePloS one2018
Environmental concentrations of metformin exposure affect aggressive behavior in the Siamese fighting fish, Betta splendens.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 53 citations in OpenAlex.
- Structural abnormalities in erythrocytes and a potential denucleation process induced by metformin, compromising cell viability in specimens of Astyanax lacustris (Pisces, Characidae).Environmental science and pollution research international · 2026Article
- The direct targets of metformin in diabetes and beyond.Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM · 2025Review
- Genotoxicity Evaluation of Metformin in Freshwater PlanarianBioMed research international · 2022Article
- Developmental phenotypic and transcriptomic effects of exposure to nanomolar levels of metformin in zebrafish.Environmental toxicology and pharmacology · 2021Article
- Pharmaceuticals in source waters of 95 First Nations in Canada.Canadian journal of public health = Revue canadienne de sante publique · 2021Article
- Development of a capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry method for the analysis of metformin and its transformation product guanylurea in biota.Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry · 2020Article
- Multi-region assessment of pharmaceutical exposures and predicted effects in USA wadeable urban-gradient streams.PloS one · 2020Article
- A combined experimental and density functional theory study of metformin oxy-cracking for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment.RSC advances · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Metformin, the medicine most commonly prescribed for treatment of Type II diabetes, is among the most abundant pharmaceuticals being introduced into the environment. Pharmaceuticals are increasingly found in wastewater and surface waters around the world, often due to incomplete metabolism in humans and subsequent excretion in human waste. Risk analyses and exposure studies have raised concerns about potential negative impacts of pharmaceuticals at current environmental levels. Results of the present study indicate that metformin at concentrations in the range of what has been documented in freshwater systems and waste-water effluent (40 μg/L) affects aggressive behavior in adult male Betta splendens. Subjects exhibited less aggression toward a male dummy stimulus after four weeks exposure to metformin-treated water when compared to behavior measured immediately prior to their exposure, and in comparison to a separate cohort of un-exposed control fish. This effect persisted after 20 weeks exposure as well. Subjects exposed to metformin at a concentration twice that currently observed in nature (80 μg/L) exhibited an even more substantial reduction in aggressive behaviors compared to controls and pre-exposure measurements than those observed in the low-dose treatment group. Such changes in behavior have the potential to affect male fitness and possibly impact the health of natural populations of aquatic organisms exposed to the drug.
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Registered trials
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