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(22-22) Internal multielement analysis as a biomaker of metal exposure. Scott-Fordsmand, Janeck*,1, Odegard, Knut2, 1 National Environmental Research Institute, Silkeborg, Denmark2 Aquateam, Oslo, Norway ABSTRACT- The main physiological effect of metals on organisms is the interaction of the metals with proteins and enzymes, causing a disturbance in the internal regulation of many metabolic pathways. This may lead to serious disturbance of the internal element regulation, for example it has been shown that lead affects the regulation of calcium within earthworms. Other studies have shown that exposure to copper may affect the zinc metabolism. These previous studies have been studying the interaction of a single metal with a single or few other elements. In the present study we studied whether exposure to a single metal affected the internal concentration of 30 essential and no-essential elements and whether such changes could be correlated with toxicological effects. The possible correlation to external concentration was further studied. The earthworm Eisenia andrei was exposed in the laboratory to 6 soil copper concentrations. The study was performed with field soil contaminated with copper 70 years ago, to avoid interaction effect of counter ion effects from added metals salt. The worms were exposed for 3 weeks at constant conditions with mortality, growth and the internal element concentrations as measured parameters. The data were treated with multivariate techniques looking for patterns and attempting to correlate this to toxicological effects. Significant internal element changes were observed indicating a disruption of the internal handling of as well essential as non-essential element upon exposure to copper polluted soil. Key words: Multielement, Metal, Earthworm, Soil |
