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Hydroxylated and methylsulfone‐containing metabolites of polychlorinated biphenyls in the plasma and blubber of bowhead whales ( Balaena mysticetus )
Author(s) -
Hoekstra Paul F.,
Letcher Robert J.,
O'Hara Todd M.,
Backus Sean M.,
Solomon Keith R.,
Muir Derek C. G.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
environmental toxicology and chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1552-8618
pISSN - 0730-7268
DOI - 10.1897/02-641
Subject(s) - blubber , polychlorinated biphenyl , environmental chemistry , chemistry , biomonitoring , biology , zoology
Bowhead whale ( Balaena mysticetus ) blubber ( n = 20) and plasma ( n = 19) samples were collected during the 1997 to 2000 Inuit subsistence harvests in Barrow, Alaska, USA, to quantify the concentrations of methylsulfone (MeSO 2 )‐containing and hydroxylated (OH) polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) metabolites in this cetacean. The distribution of MeSO 2 ‐PCBs in blubber was dominated by 4‐MeSO 2 ‐substituted congeners, the most abundant being 4‐MeSO 2 ‐CB‐70, 3ǐ‐MeSO 2 ‐CB‐132, and 4‐MeSO 2 CB‐64. Mean (±1 standard error) sum (Σ) MeSO 2 ‐PCBs concentrations in blubber were low (6.23 ± 0.81 ng g −1 lipid normalized) compared to concentrations previously reported in other marine mammals. However, similar ratios of MeSO 2 ‐PCB metabolites to parent PCB congeners among marine mammals suggest that cytochrome P450 2B‐like biotransformation and other necessary enzymemediated processes and mechanisms that influence the formation and clearance of MeSO 2 ‐PCBs exist in the bowhead whale. Pentachlorophenol was the most abundant halogenated phenolic compound quantified in bowhead plasma (1.55 ± 0.19 ng g −1 wet wt). Despite indirect evidence for arene epoxidation of the biphenyl moiety inferred from MeSO 2 ‐PCB formation, ΣOH‐PCB concentrations in bowhead plasma were low (1.52 ± 0.31 ng g −1 wet wt) compared to humans and marine mammals and were comprised of only two detectable OH‐PCB congeners (4ǐ‐OH‐CB‐130 and 4‐OH‐CB‐187). Further research is required to elucidate the toxicokinetics and distribution of OH‐PCBs in this cetacean.