The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales
Many of the factors that shape contaminant accumulation profiles in marine mammals also strongly influence fat soluble vitamin accumulation. Vitamin A and E are essential fat soluble nutrients for numerous biological processes, including reproduction, growth, endocrine and immune function. Contamina...
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ftuvicpubl:oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/4510 2023-05-15T15:02:03+02:00 The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales Desforges, Jean-Pierre Whiticar, Michael J. Ross, Peter S. 2013 application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4510 English en eng http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4510 Available to the World Wide Web Persistent organic pollutant Beluga whale Toxicology Vitamins Health effects Thesis 2013 ftuvicpubl 2022-05-19T06:13:51Z Many of the factors that shape contaminant accumulation profiles in marine mammals also strongly influence fat soluble vitamin accumulation. Vitamin A and E are essential fat soluble nutrients for numerous biological processes, including reproduction, growth, endocrine and immune function. Contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), can alter vitamin dynamics; as such these vitamins have been proposed as sensitive biomarkers of contaminant exposure in wildlife. In light of these considerations, the present thesis was aimed at better understanding the factors that influence the accumulation of lipophilic contaminants and vitamins in western Arctic beluga whales, and to determine if there was an interaction between the two. Maternal offloading to neonates during gestation reduced overall contaminant (PCBs and PBDEs) and vitamin (A and E) concentrations in reproductively active female whales. The PCB and PBDE congener pattern in mothers changed during gestation as a result of preferential transfer of light-low Log KOW congeners to the fetus. Overall, female beluga whales transferred approximately 11% of their PCB and PBDE blubber burden to their fetus. In terms of vitamins transfer, lower concentrations of tocopherols, retinol and retinyl esters were found in reproductively active females relative to males and reproductively inactive females. Metabolism was also found to be an important factor for contaminant and vitamin accumulation in beluga tissues. In a principal components analysis, PCBs clustered into metabolically-derived structure-activity groups, which separated along the first principal component according to its metabolic potential (metabolizable vs. recalcitrant). Contaminant-related up-regulation of metabolizing enzymes, including cytochrome P450, likely explained changes in the concentration and pattern of PCB and PBDE congeners, as well as hepatic, plasma, and blubber vitamin A and E. Since vitamins and lipophilic contaminants accumulated in ... Thesis Arctic Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace Arctic |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Victoria (Canada): UVicDSpace |
op_collection_id |
ftuvicpubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Persistent organic pollutant Beluga whale Toxicology Vitamins Health effects |
spellingShingle |
Persistent organic pollutant Beluga whale Toxicology Vitamins Health effects Desforges, Jean-Pierre The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
topic_facet |
Persistent organic pollutant Beluga whale Toxicology Vitamins Health effects |
description |
Many of the factors that shape contaminant accumulation profiles in marine mammals also strongly influence fat soluble vitamin accumulation. Vitamin A and E are essential fat soluble nutrients for numerous biological processes, including reproduction, growth, endocrine and immune function. Contaminants, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), can alter vitamin dynamics; as such these vitamins have been proposed as sensitive biomarkers of contaminant exposure in wildlife. In light of these considerations, the present thesis was aimed at better understanding the factors that influence the accumulation of lipophilic contaminants and vitamins in western Arctic beluga whales, and to determine if there was an interaction between the two. Maternal offloading to neonates during gestation reduced overall contaminant (PCBs and PBDEs) and vitamin (A and E) concentrations in reproductively active female whales. The PCB and PBDE congener pattern in mothers changed during gestation as a result of preferential transfer of light-low Log KOW congeners to the fetus. Overall, female beluga whales transferred approximately 11% of their PCB and PBDE blubber burden to their fetus. In terms of vitamins transfer, lower concentrations of tocopherols, retinol and retinyl esters were found in reproductively active females relative to males and reproductively inactive females. Metabolism was also found to be an important factor for contaminant and vitamin accumulation in beluga tissues. In a principal components analysis, PCBs clustered into metabolically-derived structure-activity groups, which separated along the first principal component according to its metabolic potential (metabolizable vs. recalcitrant). Contaminant-related up-regulation of metabolizing enzymes, including cytochrome P450, likely explained changes in the concentration and pattern of PCB and PBDE congeners, as well as hepatic, plasma, and blubber vitamin A and E. Since vitamins and lipophilic contaminants accumulated in ... |
author2 |
Whiticar, Michael J. Ross, Peter S. |
format |
Thesis |
author |
Desforges, Jean-Pierre |
author_facet |
Desforges, Jean-Pierre |
author_sort |
Desforges, Jean-Pierre |
title |
The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
title_short |
The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
title_full |
The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
title_fullStr |
The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
title_full_unstemmed |
The good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western Arctic beluga whales |
title_sort |
good, the bad and the ugly: lessons learned from vitamins, persistent organic pollutants, and the interaction of the two in western arctic beluga whales |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4510 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beluga Beluga whale Beluga* |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4510 |
op_rights |
Available to the World Wide Web |
_version_ |
1766334049100496896 |