Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California , One Shields Avenue, Davis, California 95616, United States.
Department of Internal Medicine, University of California , 4150 V Street, Suite 3400, Sacramento, California 95817, United States.
Environ Sci Technol. 2017 May 16;51(10):5737-5746. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06482. Epub 2017 Apr 27.
Health assessments of wild cetaceans can be challenging due to the difficulty of gaining access to conventional diagnostic matrices of blood, serum and others. While the noninvasive detection of metabolites in exhaled breath could potentially help to address this problem, there exists a knowledge gap regarding associations between known disease states and breath metabolite profiles in cetaceans. This technology was applied to the largest marine oil spill in U.S. history (The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico). An accurate analysis was performed to test for associations between the exhaled breath metabolome and sonographic lung abnormalities as well as hematological, serum biochemical, and endocrine hormone parameters. Importantly, metabolites consistent with chronic inflammation, such as products of lung epithelial cellular breakdown and arachidonic acid cascade metabolites were associated with sonographic evidence of lung consolidation. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) metabolite profiles also correlated with serum hormone concentrations (cortisol and aldosterone), hepatobiliary enzyme levels, white blood cell counts, and iron homeostasis. The correlations among breath metabolites and conventional health measures suggest potential application of breath sampling for remotely assessing health of wild cetaceans. This methodology may hold promise for large cetaceans in the wild for which routine collection of blood and respiratory anomalies are not currently feasible.
由于难以获得血液、血清等常规诊断矩阵，对野生鲸目动物进行健康评估具有挑战性。虽然呼气中代谢物的非侵入性检测可能有助于解决这个问题，但对于已知疾病状态与鲸目动物呼吸代谢谱之间的关联，仍存在知识空白。这项技术应用于美国历史上最大的海洋石油泄漏事件（2010 年墨西哥湾深海地平线石油泄漏事件）。进行了一项准确的分析，以测试呼气代谢组与超声肺部异常以及血液学、血清生化和内分泌激素参数之间的关联。重要的是，与慢性炎症一致的代谢物，如肺上皮细胞分解产物和花生四烯酸级联代谢物，与超声显示的肺部实变有关。呼出气冷凝物 (EBC) 代谢谱也与血清激素浓度（皮质醇和醛固酮）、肝胆酶水平、白细胞计数和铁稳态相关。呼吸代谢物与常规健康指标之间的相关性表明，呼吸采样可能用于远程评估野生鲸目动物的健康状况。对于目前无法常规采集血液和呼吸异常的大型鲸目动物来说，这种方法具有很大的应用前景。
