Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue 95616, CA, USA.
The Marine Mammal Center, 2000 Bunker Road, Fort Cronkhite, Sausalito 94965-2619, CA, USA.
Metabolites. 2014 Sep 12;4(3):790-806. doi: 10.3390/metabo4030790.
We explored the feasibility of collecting exhaled breath from a moribund gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) for potential non-invasive health monitoring of marine mammals. Biogenic volatile organic compound (VOC) profiling is a relatively new field of research, in which the chemical composition of breath is used to non-invasively assess the health and physiological processes on-going within an animal or human. In this study, two telescopic sampling poles were designed and tested with the primary aim of collecting whale breath exhalations (WBEs). Once the WBEs were successfully collected, they were immediately transferred onto a stable matrix sorbent through a custom manifold system. A total of two large volume WBEs were successfully captured and pre-concentrated onto two Tenax®-TA traps (one exhalation per trap). The samples were then returned to the laboratory where they were analyzed using solid phase micro extraction (SPME) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). A total of 70 chemicals were identified (58 positively identified) in the whale breath samples. These chemicals were also matched against a database of VOCs found in humans, and 44% of chemicals found in the whale breath are also released by healthy humans. The exhaled gray whale breath showed a rich diversity of chemicals, indicating the analysis of whale breath exhalations is a promising new field of research.
我们探索了从濒死的灰鲸（Eschrichtius robustus）采集呼气的可行性，以期对海洋哺乳动物进行潜在的非侵入性健康监测。生物挥发性有机化合物 (VOC) 分析是一个相对较新的研究领域，其中呼吸的化学成分被用于非侵入性地评估动物或人类体内的健康和生理过程。在这项研究中，设计并测试了两个伸缩采样杆，主要目的是采集鲸呼气（WBE）。一旦成功采集到 WBE，它们就会通过定制歧管系统立即转移到稳定的基质吸附剂上。总共成功捕获并预浓缩了两个大体积的 WBE 到两个 Tenax®-TA 捕集阱（每个捕集阱一个呼气）中。然后将样品送回实验室，使用固相微萃取 (SPME) 和气相色谱/质谱 (GC/MS) 进行分析。在鲸呼吸样本中鉴定出了 70 种化学物质（58 种被确认为阳性）。这些化学物质还与人类体内发现的 VOC 数据库进行了匹配，并且在鲸呼吸中发现的 44%的化学物质也是健康人类释放的。呼出的灰鲸呼吸显示出丰富多样的化学物质，表明鲸呼气分析是一个很有前途的新研究领域。
