Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-xtvcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-20T22:20:32.566Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mercury and selenium localization in macrophages of the striped dolphin, Stenella coeruleoalba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 October 2019

Marco Nigro
Marco Nigro
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Biomedicina Sperimentale, Via A. Volta 4, 1–56126 Pisa, Italy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The cellular features of mercury and selenium accumulation has been studied by transmission electron microscopy and x-ray microprobe analysis in the liver of striped dolphins. Mercury and selenium occurred as dense intracellular granules, located mainly within the liver macrophages (Kupffer cells). Granules were composed of 150 A spherical particles showing the same electron diffraction pattern and x-ray spectrum as mercuric selenide. The role of macrophages in mercuric selenide granule production and storage is discussed.

Type
Short Communications
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 74 , Issue 4 , November 1994 , pp. 975 - 978
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

André, J.M., Boudou, A. & Ribeyre, F., 1991. Mercury accumulation in Delphinidae. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 56, 187–201.Google Scholar
Hirokawa, K. & Hyashi, Y. 1980. Acute methyl mercury intoxication in mice. Effect on the immune system. Ada Pathologica Japonica, 30, 23–32.Google Scholar
Joiris, C.R., Holsbeek, L., Bouquegneau, J.M. & Bossicart, M., 1991. Mercury contamination of the harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena and other cetaceans from the North Sea and the Kattegat. Water, Air and Soil Pollution, 56, 283–293.Google Scholar
Koeman, J.H., Peeters, W.H.M., Koudstaal-Hol, C.H.M., Tjioe, P.S. & Goeij, J.J.M. de, 1973. Mercury-selenium correlations in marine mammals. Nature, London, 245, 385–386.Google Scholar
Leonzio, C., Focardi, S. & Fossi, C., 1992. Heavy metals and selenium in stranded dolphins of the Northern Tyrrhenian (NW Mediterranean). Science of the Total Environment, 119, 77–84.Google Scholar
Martoja, R. & Berry, J.-P., 1980. Identification of tiemannite as a probable product of demethylation of mercury by selenium in cetaceans. A complement to the scheme of the biological cycle of mercury. Vie et Milieu, 30, 7–10.Google Scholar
Nigro, M. & Leonzio, G., 1993. Mercury selenide accumulation in dolphins. Proceedings of the 7th Annual Conference of the European Cetacean Society, Inverness, Scotland, February 1993, pp. 212–215.Google Scholar
Norseth, T. & Clarkson, T.V., 1970. Intestinal transport of203Hg-labeled methylmercuric chloride. Role of biotransformation in rats. Archives of Environmental Health, 22, 568–577.Google Scholar
Rawson, A.J., Patton, G.W., Hofmann, S., Pietra, G.G. & Johns, L. 1993. Liver abnormalities associated with chronic mercury accumulation in stranded Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety, 25, 41–47.Google Scholar
Suda, I. & Takahashi, H., 1986. Enhanced and inhibited biotransformation of methyl mercury in the rat spleen. Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, 82, 45–52.Google Scholar
Suda, I., Totoki, S., Uchida, T. & Takahashi, H., 1992. Degradation of methyl and ethyl mercury into inorganic mercury by various phagocytic cells. Archives of Toxicology, 66, 40–44.Google Scholar
Thompson, D.R., 1990. Metal levels in marine vertebrates. In Heavy metals in the marine environment (ed. Furness, R.W. and Rainbow, P.S.), pp. 143–182. Boca Raton: CRC Press Inc.Google Scholar