Crude Oil Impairs Cardiac Excitation-Contraction Coupling in Fish

There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

Abstract

Crude oil is known to disrupt cardiac function in fish embryos. Large oil spills, such as the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) disaster that occurred in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, could severely affect fish at impacted spawning sites. The physiological mechanisms underlying such potential cardiotoxic effects remain unclear. Here, we show that crude oil samples collected from the DWH spill prolonged the action potential of isolated cardiomyocytes from juvenile bluefin and yellowfin tunas, through the blocking of the delayed rectifier potassium current (I(Kr)). Crude oil exposure also decreased calcium current (I(Ca)) and calcium cycling, which disrupted excitation-contraction coupling in cardiomyocytes. Our findings demonstrate a cardiotoxic mechanism by which crude oil affects the regulation of cellular excitability, with implications for life-threatening arrhythmias in vertebrates.

Related collections

Most cited references 30

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Charles H Peterson, Stanley Rice, Jeffrey W. Short … (2003)

The ecosystem response to the 1989 spill of oil from the Exxon Valdez into Prince William Sound, Alaska, shows that current practices for assessing ecological risks of oil in the oceans and, by extension, other toxic sources should be changed. Previously, it was assumed that impacts to populations derive almost exclusively from acute mortality. However, in the Alaskan coastal ecosystem, unexpected persistence of toxic subsurface oil and chronic exposures, even at sublethal levels, have continued to affect wildlife. Delayed population reductions and cascades of indirect effects postponed recovery. Development of ecosystem-based toxicology is required to understand and ultimately predict chronic, delayed, and indirect long-term risks and impacts.

0 comments Cited 289 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Electronic tagging and population structure of Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Barbara Block, Steven L H Teo, Andreas Walli … (2005)

Electronic tags that archive or transmit stored data to satellites have advanced the mapping of habitats used by highly migratory fish in pelagic ecosystems. Here we report on the electronic tagging of 772 Atlantic bluefin tuna in the western Atlantic Ocean in an effort to identify population structure. Reporting electronic tags provided accurate location data that show the extensive migrations of individual fish (n = 330). Geoposition data delineate two populations, one using spawning grounds in the Gulf of Mexico and another from the Mediterranean Sea. Transatlantic movements of western-tagged bluefin tuna reveal site fidelity to known spawning areas in the Mediterranean Sea. Bluefin tuna that occupy western spawning grounds move to central and eastern Atlantic foraging grounds. Our results are consistent with two populations of bluefin tuna with distinct spawning areas that overlap on North Atlantic foraging grounds. Electronic tagging locations, when combined with US pelagic longline observer and logbook catch data, identify hot spots for spawning bluefin tuna in the northern slope waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Restrictions on the time and area where longlining occurs would reduce incidental catch mortalities on western spawning grounds.

0 comments Cited 263 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

Record: found
Abstract: found
Article: not found

Cancer risk assessment, indicators, and guidelines for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the ambient air.

Carl-Elis Boström, Per Gerde, Annika Hanberg … (2002)

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed during incomplete combustion. Domestic wood burning and road traffic are the major sources of PAHs in Sweden. In Stockholm, the sum of 14 different PAHs is 100-200 ng/m(3) at the street-level site, the most abundant being phenanthrene. Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) varies between 1 and 2 ng/m(3). Exposure to PAH-containing substances increases the risk of cancer in humans. The carcinogenicity of PAHs is associated with the complexity of the molecule, i.e., increasing number of benzenoid rings, and with metabolic activation to reactive diol epoxide intermediates and their subsequent covalent binding to critical targets in DNA. B[a]P is the main indicator of carcinogenic PAHs. Fluoranthene is an important volatile PAH because it occurs at high concentrations in ambient air and because it is an experimental carcinogen in certain test systems. Thus, fluoranthene is suggested as a complementary indicator to B[a]P. The most carcinogenic PAH identified, dibenzo[a,l]pyrene, is also suggested as an indicator, although it occurs at very low concentrations. Quantitative cancer risk estimates of PAHs as air pollutants are very uncertain because of the lack of useful, good-quality data. According to the World Health Organization Air Quality Guidelines for Europe, the unit risk is 9 X 10(-5) per ng/m(3) of B[a]P as indicator of the total PAH content, namely, lifetime exposure to 0.1 ng/m(3) would theoretically lead to one extra cancer case in 100,000 exposed individuals. This concentration of 0.1 ng/m(3) of B[a]P is suggested as a health-based guideline. Because the carcinogenic potency of fluoranthene has been estimated to be approximately 20 times less than that of B[a]P, a tentative guideline value of 2 ng/m(3) is suggested for fluoranthene. Other significant PAHs are phenanthrene, methylated phenanthrenes/anthracenes and pyrene (high air concentrations), and large-molecule PAHs such as dibenz[a,h]anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, and indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene (high carcinogenicity). Additional source-specific indicators are benzo[ghi]perylene for gasoline vehicles, retene for wood combustion, and dibenzothiophene and benzonaphthothiophene for sulfur-containing fuels.

0 comments Cited 262 times – based on 0 reviews      Review now

Bookmark

All references

Author and article information

Journal

Title: Science

Abbreviated Title: Science

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

ISSN (Print): 0036-8075

ISSN (Electronic): 1095-9203

Publication date Created: February 13 2014

Publication date Created: February 14 2014

Publication date (Electronic): February 13 2014

Publication date (Print): February 14 2014

Volume: 343

Issue: 6172

Pages: 772-776

Article

DOI: 10.1126/science.1242747

PubMed ID: 24531969

SO-VID: 39222dfe-7610-43ff-ad92-fbaf0151c6e3

History

Data availability:

Comments

Comment on this article

scite_

Cited by 68

See all cited by

Most referenced authors 750

See all reference authors

- Version 1

Crude Oil Impairs Cardiac Excitation-Contraction Coupling in Fish

Read this article at

Abstract

Related collections

Behavioral Ecology of Fishes

Most cited references 30

Long-term ecosystem response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Electronic tagging and population structure of Atlantic bluefin tuna.

Cancer risk assessment, indicators, and guidelines for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the ambient air.

Author and article information

Journal

Article

History

Comments

Comment on this article

Similar content 2,255

Cited by 68

Most referenced authors 750