Pinsino A, Della Torre C, Sammarini V, Bonaventura R, Amato E, Matranga V
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Biomedicina e Immunologia Molecolare Alberto Monroy, Palermo, Italy.
Cell Biol Toxicol. 2008 Dec;24(6):541-52. doi: 10.1007/s10565-008-9055-0. Epub 2008 Jan 29.
The aim of the present study was to investigate on the suitability of the sea urchin as a sentinel organism for the assessment of the macro-zoobenthos health state in bio-monitoring programmes. A field study was carried out during two oceanographic campaigns using immuno-competent cells, the coelomocytes, from sea urchins living in a marine protected area. In particular, coelomocytes subpopulations ratio and heat shock protein 70 (HSC70) levels were measured in specimens of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamark, 1816) collected in two sampling sites, namely Pianosa and Caprara Islands, both belonging to the Tremiti Island Marine Protected Area (MPA) in the Southern Adriatic Sea, Italy. By density gradients separation performed on board the Astrea boat, we found an evident increase in red amoebocytes, a subpopulation increasing upon stress, in those specimens collected around Pianosa (strictly protected area with no human activities allowed), unlike those collected around Caprara (low restrictions for human activities). Likewise, we found higher HSC70 protein levels in the low impacted site (Pianosa) by Western blots on total coelomocyte lysates. The apparent paradox could be explained by the presence in the Pianosa sampling area of contaminating remains from Second World War conventional ammunitions and a merchant boat wreck. Metal determination performed using sea urchin gonads by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) revealed higher Fe and lower Zn levels around Pianosa with respect to Caprara, in accordance with the persistent contaminating metal sources, and thus calling for remediation measures. Taken all together, our results confirm the feasibility of using sea urchin coelomocytes as biosensors of environmental stress.
本研究的目的是调查海胆作为生物监测计划中评估大型底栖动物健康状况的指示生物的适用性。在两次海洋学考察期间进行了一项实地研究，使用来自生活在海洋保护区的海胆的免疫活性细胞——体腔细胞。具体而言，在两个采样点采集的紫海胆（Paracentrotus lividus，拉马克，1816年）标本中，测量了体腔细胞亚群比例和热休克蛋白70（HSC70）水平。这两个采样点分别是皮阿诺萨岛和卡普拉拉岛，均属于意大利亚得里亚海南部的特里米蒂岛海洋保护区（MPA）。通过在阿斯特雷亚号船上进行密度梯度分离，我们发现，在皮阿诺萨岛（严格保护区，禁止任何人类活动）周围采集的标本中，红色变形细胞（一种在应激时增加的亚群）明显增加，这与在卡普拉拉岛（对人类活动限制较少）周围采集的标本不同。同样，通过对总体腔细胞裂解物进行蛋白质印迹分析，我们发现在受影响较小的地点（皮阿诺萨岛）HSC70蛋白水平较高。这种明显的矛盾现象可以用皮阿诺萨采样区域存在第二次世界大战常规弹药和一艘商船残骸的污染残留物来解释。使用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法（ICP-AES）对海胆性腺进行金属测定，结果显示，与卡普拉拉岛相比，皮阿诺萨岛周围的铁含量较高，锌含量较低，这与持久性污染金属来源一致，因此需要采取补救措施。综上所述，我们的结果证实了使用海胆体腔细胞作为环境应激生物传感器的可行性。
