Concentrations of trace elements in marine fish and its risk assessment in Malaysia

Concentrations of trace elements (V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Sb, Cs, Ba, Hg, Tl, Pb and Bi) were determined in muscle and liver of 12 species of marine fish collected from coastal areas in Malaysia. Levels of V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Ga, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sn, Ba and Pb in liver were higher than those in muscle, whereas Rb and Cs concentrations showed the opposite trend. Positive correlations between concentrations in liver and muscle were observed for all the trace elements except Cu and Sn. Copper, Zn, Se, Ag, Cd, Cs and Hg concentrations in bigeye scads from the east coast of the Peninsular Malaysia were higher than those from the west, whereas V showed the opposite trend. The high concentration of V in the west coast might indicate oil contamination in the Strait of Malacca. To evaluate the health risk to Malaysian population through consumption of fish, intake rates of trace elements were estimated on the basis of the concentrations of trace elements in muscle of fish and daily fish consumption. Some specimens of the marine fish had Hg levels higher than the guideline value by US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indicating that consumption of these fish at the present rate may be hazardous to Malaysian people. To our knowledge, this is the first study on multielemental accumulation in marine fish from the Malaysian coast. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Accumulation of trace elements and persistent organochlorines in resident and migratory waders from Calatagan Bay, Philippines

Concentrations of V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, Se, Rb, Sr, Mo, Ag, Cd, Sb, Cs, Ba, Hg, Tl and Pb were determined in the liver of six species of resident and migratory waders collected in December 1997 from Calatagan Bay, Philippines. Renal Cd concentrations in these species were also determined. Trace element levels were observed to have either decreased or remained intact in the winter, suggestive that trace element burdens for migratory waders could be minimal during wintering. It seems that the migration distance of waders is a dominant factor in the accumulation of toxic elements such as Cd, Hg and Pb. Hepatic Cd concentrations of pintail snipe are likely to be incritical levels. While concentrations of persistent organochlorines such as PCBs, DDTs, HCHs, CHLs and HCB were determined in the whole bodies and adipose tissues of migratory and resident waders collected in April and December 1994. Accumulation patterns of OCs found in resident birds suggested that PCBs and CHLs were the predominant contents. Among the OCs, It was noted that migratory birds retained mostly high concentrations of DDTs. This finding could be reflective of the presence of these contaminants in the stopover and breeding/wintering ground of these waders in China and Russia. Whereas residual concentrations found in resident birds reflect the pollution status of the sampling area, those found in migratory waders reflect both the pollution status of the sampling area and their migratory routes. Waders are therefore useful bioindicators to elucidate the contamination status of toxic metals and organochlorines in breeding grounds, stopover sites and wintering grounds

Behavioral and omics analyses study on potential involvement of dipeptide balenine through supplementation in diet of senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8

This study investigates effects of dipeptide balenine, as a major component of whale meat extract (hereafter, WME), supplementation on senescence-accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8), an Alzheimer's disease (AD) model at level of learning and memory formation and brain expression profiles genome-wide in brain. Mice fed experimental balenine (+WME) supplemented diet for 26 weeks were subjected to four behavioral tests – open field, Y-maze, novel object recognition, and water-filled multiple T-maze – to examine effects on learning and memory. Brain transcriptome of SAMP8 mice-fed the WME diet over control low-safflower oil (LSO) diet-fed mice was delineated on a 4 × 44 K mouse whole genome DNA microarray chip. Results revealed the WME diet not only induced improvements in the learning and memory formation but also positively modulated changes in the brain of the SAMP8 mouse; the gene inventories are publically available for analysis by the scientific community. Interestingly, the SAMP8 mouse model presented many genetic characteristics of AD, and numerous novel molecules (Slc2a5, Treh, Fbp1, Aldob, Ppp1r1a, DNase1, Agxt2l1, Cyp2e1, Acsm1, Acsm2, and Pah) were revealed over the SAMR1 (senescence-accelerated mouse resistant 1) mouse, to be oppositely regulated/recovered under the balenine (+WME) supplemented diet regime by DNA microarray and bioinformatics analyses. Our present study demonstrates an experimental strategy to understand the effects of dipeptide balenine, prominetly contained in meat diet, on SAMP8, providing new insight into whole brain transcriptome changes genome-wide. The gene expression data has been deposited into the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO): GSE76459. The data will be a valuable resource in examining the effects of natural products, and which could also serve as a human model for further functional analysis and investigation