posted on 2021-08-12, 17:39authored byChelsea Grimard, Annika Mangold-Döring, Hattan Alharbi, Lynn Weber, Natacha Hogan, Paul D. Jones, John P. Giesy, Markus Hecker, Markus Brinkmann
The white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) is an endangered ancient
fish species that is known to be particularly
sensitive to certain environmental contaminants, partly because of
the uptake and subsequent toxicity of lipophilic pollutants prone
to bioconcentration as a result of their high lipid content. To better
understand the bioconcentration of organic contaminants in this species,
toxicokinetic (TK) models were developed for the embryo-larval and
subadult life stages. The embryo-larval model was designed as a one-compartment
model and validated using whole-body measurements of benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) metabolites from a waterborne
exposure to B[a]P. A physiologically based TK (PBTK)
model was used for the subadult model. The predictive power of the
subadult model was validated with an experimental data set of four
chemicals. Results showed that the TK models could accurately predict
the bioconcentration of organic contaminants for both life stages
of white sturgeon within 1 order of magnitude of measured values.
These models provide a tool to better understand the impact of environmental
contaminants on the health and the survival of endangered white sturgeon
populations.