ABSTRACT
The health of a marine ecosystem can effectively be monitored by studying the levels of biomarkers in a representative species. A change in background level of a biomarker indicates exposure to a specific type of pollutants. It also identifies bioavailability and the organism response to the causative agent among the compounds present in the surrounding water body. Yellowfin seabream (Acanthopagrus latus), a local variety of fish, was examined for parent PAHs in the liver, its metabolites in bile by the GC-MS method as exposure biomarkers and cytochrome P4501A1 by assay of ethoxyresorufin-o-deethylase (EROD) in the liver as an effect biomarker. A comparison was made between fish collected in 2015 with the fish collected in 2005-2006 and stored at - 80 °C in the fish bank. The objective was to examine the extent of changes in the environmental quality of the Kuwait marine area and the status of fish health concerning oil-related pollutants since Arabian Gulf is surrounded by oil-producing countries. Interestingly, insignificant differences between the liver PAH content and EROD activity were observed in fish over the sampling periods. The fish efficiently metabolized PAHs and excreted hydroxy-metabolites in bile. The study suggested that environmental quality of the Kuwait marine area was not deteriorated to any serious extent in the last decade and biomarkers can be used effectively in assessing the thrust of sub-optimal levels of various contaminants present in the marine area on the resident biota.
Subject(s)
Biomarkers/metabolism , Environmental Monitoring/methods , Fishes/physiology , Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis , Animals , Bile/chemistry , Cytochrome P-450 CYP1A1/metabolism , Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry , Kuwait , Liver/metabolism , Perciformes/metabolism , Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons/analysis , Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons/metabolism , Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons/toxicity , Sea Bream/metabolism , Water Pollutants, Chemical/metabolism , Water Pollutants, Chemical/toxicityABSTRACT
An improved method for determination of cholesterol in processed food with only one extraction and without solvent removal was developed. Total time to analyze a sample including gas chromatographic (GC) analysis is 45 min. Food samples spiked with internal standard are hydrolyzed in a screw-capped vial with saturated methanolic KOH. Cyclohexane is added to the mixture, and the upper layer is analyzed by GC on a capillary column. Average recoveries of spiked white eggs are 99 +/- 0.5%. Fifteen types of processed food containing shrimp, fish, meat, cheese, eggs, and vegetables were analyzed with this method and with the AOAC method.
