Aquatic Contaminants Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 105 McGill, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Aquatic Contaminants Research Division, Environment and Climate Change Canada, 105 McGill, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Comp Biochem Physiol C Toxicol Pharmacol. 2022 Jan;251:109193. doi: 10.1016/j.cbpc.2021.109193. Epub 2021 Sep 29.
The intense mining extraction of oil sand (OS) has increased over the last few decades, raising concerns about the release of OS contaminants and toxicity in resident aquatic organisms in the Athabasca River (Alberta, Canada). To address this, endemic Pyganodon grandis mussels were caged for 6 weeks at various upstream and downstream sites of industrial OS mining activities. Post-exposure mussels were then analyzed for light/medium/heavy polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in tissues, general health (weight to length ratio, growth rate, air survival time), biotransformation (cytochrome P4501A and 3A and glutathione S-transferase activities), oxidative stress/inflammation (lipid peroxidation-LPO and arachidonate cyclooxygenase-COX), genotoxicity (DNA strand breaks), and gonad status (triglycerides, GSI and vitellogenin-like proteins). The following effects significantly differed between OS mining area and natural/background sites: health condition, growth rate, air survival time, COX (immune/inflammation) activity, P4501A/GST activity, LPO and DNA breaks in the digestive gland and vitellogenin-like proteins in the gonad. Correlation analysis revealed that the biochemical responses were scaled to at least one of the following impacts at the individual level: air survival time, weight to length ratio, growth rate and vitellogenin-like proteins. These indices were therefore identified as key adverse outcome pathways of mussels impacted by OS mining activities. Based on the relative levels of light/medium/heavy PAHs in tissues, the observed effects appears to be associated rather to the disturbance of OS in this area than contamination from OS tailing ponds leaching into the aquatic environment.
过去几十年来，油砂（OS）的高强度开采有所增加，这引发了人们对阿萨巴斯卡河（加拿大艾伯塔省）中油砂污染物释放和水生生物毒性的担忧。为了解决这个问题，对栖息在该地区的特有珍珠贻贝（Pyganodon grandis）进行了为期 6 周的笼养实验，分别在工业油砂开采活动的上下游不同地点进行。暴露实验结束后，分析贻贝组织中的轻/中/重多环芳烃（PAHs）、整体健康状况（体重与体长比、生长率、空气存活时间）、生物转化（细胞色素 P4501A 和 3A 以及谷胱甘肽 S-转移酶活性）、氧化应激/炎症（脂质过氧化-LPO 和花生四烯酸环氧化酶-COX）、遗传毒性（DNA 链断裂）和性腺状况（甘油三酯、GSI 和卵黄蛋白原样蛋白）。油砂矿区与自然/背景地区的贻贝在以下方面存在显著差异：健康状况、生长率、空气存活时间、COX（免疫/炎症）活性、P4501A/GST 活性、LPO 和 DNA 双链断裂在消化腺中，以及卵黄蛋白原样蛋白在性腺中。相关分析表明，个体水平上的生化反应与空气存活时间、体重与体长比、生长率和卵黄蛋白原样蛋白中的至少一种影响有关。因此，这些指数被确定为受油砂开采活动影响的贻贝的关键不良结局途径。根据组织中轻/中/重 PAHs 的相对水平，观察到的影响似乎与该地区油砂的干扰有关，而不是与 OS 尾矿池渗漏到水生环境中的污染有关。
