Impacts of PCBs on grey seal pup immunity and influenza A infection vary across biological scales

IF 4.3 2区环境科学与生态学 Q1 MARINE & FRESHWATER BIOLOGY

Aquatic Toxicology Pub Date : 2025-09-20 DOI:10.1016/j.aquatox.2025.107583

Christina M. McCosker , Milton Levin , Wendy B. Puryear , Jonathan A. Runstadler , Christopher Perkins , Ebru Unal , Kimberly T. Murray , Kristina M. Cammen

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Disease outbreaks in marine species have increased, prompting concern regarding the health of coastal ecosystems. Environmental contaminants are hypothesized to contribute to disease outbreaks, as many contaminants have documented immunosuppressive effects in a variety of marine organisms. Of particular concern are marine mammals that have long life-spans, live in coastal waters, and have thick blubber, all of which leads to greater contaminant exposure and accumulation. In the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) have been detected in grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), yet research on impacts of PCBs in this species is limited or yields contradictory results. We first validated the use of dried blood spot (DBS) cards to measure contaminants in wild grey seal pups using a paired analysis to whole blood samples (N = 30). Then, DBS was used to measure PCBs in pup blood (N = 127) and we assessed the impact of PCBs on gene expression (N = 23), cytokines (N = 87), and influenza A virus (IAV) infection status (N = 127). We found a significant correlation between the concentrations of PCBs detected by DBS and whole blood. PCBs were found to down-regulate adaptive immunity genes, but up-regulate innate immunity and defense response genes. Despite the apparent effects of PCBs at the molecular level, we observed no difference in cytokine profiles nor IAV infection status across pups with and without measurable PCBs. Our research highlights the intricacies of contaminant-induced effects on immune function and sheds light on how grey seals survive ongoing threats in their environment.

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多氯联苯对灰海豹幼仔免疫和甲型流感感染的影响在不同的生物尺度上存在差异

海洋物种的疾病爆发有所增加，引起人们对沿海生态系统健康的关注。环境污染物被假设为疾病爆发的原因，因为许多污染物在各种海洋生物中都有记录的免疫抑制作用。特别值得关注的是寿命较长的海洋哺乳动物，它们生活在沿海水域，有厚厚的鲸脂，所有这些都会导致更多的污染物暴露和积累。在西北大西洋，在灰海豹（Halichoerus grypus）中检测到多氯联苯（PCBs），但关于PCBs对该物种影响的研究有限或得出相互矛盾的结果。我们首先验证了使用干血斑（DBS）卡对全血样本（N = 30）进行配对分析来测量野生灰海豹幼崽中的污染物。然后，采用DBS检测幼崽血液中的PCBs (N = 127)，评估PCBs对基因表达（N = 23）、细胞因子（N = 87）和甲型流感病毒（IAV）感染状态（N = 127）的影响。我们发现DBS检测到的多氯联苯浓度与全血之间存在显著相关性。多氯联苯可下调适应性免疫基因，上调先天免疫和防御反应基因。尽管多氯联苯在分子水平上有明显的影响，但我们观察到细胞因子谱和IAV感染状态在有和没有可测量的多氯联苯的幼鼠中没有差异。我们的研究强调了污染物对免疫功能影响的复杂性，并揭示了灰海豹如何在其环境中生存的持续威胁。

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来源期刊

Aquatic Toxicology 环境科学-毒理学

CiteScore

7.10

自引率

4.40%

发文量

250

审稿时长

56 days

期刊介绍： Aquatic Toxicology publishes significant contributions that increase the understanding of the impact of harmful substances (including natural and synthetic chemicals) on aquatic organisms and ecosystems. Aquatic Toxicology considers both laboratory and field studies with a focus on marine/ freshwater environments. We strive to attract high quality original scientific papers, critical reviews and expert opinion papers in the following areas: Effects of harmful substances on molecular, cellular, sub-organismal, organismal, population, community, and ecosystem level; Toxic Mechanisms; Genetic disturbances, transgenerational effects, behavioral and adaptive responses; Impacts of harmful substances on structure, function of and services provided by aquatic ecosystems; Mixture toxicity assessment; Statistical approaches to predict exposure to and hazards of contaminants The journal also considers manuscripts in other areas, such as the development of innovative concepts, approaches, and methodologies, which promote the wider application of toxicological datasets to the protection of aquatic environments and inform ecological risk assessments and decision making by relevant authorities.