Molecular and Cellular Indices of Pollutant Effects and Their Use in Environmental Impact Assessment

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Marine and estuarine environments receive a wide variety of contaminant chemical (xenobiotic) inputs, which must now be regarded as constituents of the natural system; these xenobiotics tend to over-load the normal physiological mechanisms for their disposal. The credit for the continued survival of organisms must be accorded to the protective mechanisms of biotransfor-mation or detoxication present in cells. These include the NADPH-dependent cytochrome P-450 monooxygenases, which metabolize toxic organic xenobiotics, metallothioneins which bind and detoxify many metals and lysosomal accumulation which sequesters many xenobiotics thus compartmentalizing them away from other cellular components. This presentation considers the development of early-warning systems based on biological responses to cell injury at the molecular, subcellular and cellular levels of organization, with particular emphasis on the use of marine mussels and periwinkles as sentinel organisms for assessing pollutant effects. Responses discussed include those of the microsomal detoxication system to organic xenobiotics, functional and structural responses of lysosomes to organic and inorganic xenobiotics, quantitative structural alterations in the cells of the digestive and reproductive systems and finally genotoxicity measured using aneuploidy and sister chromatid exchange as indices of chromosomal damage. Where possible these indices are discussed in an integrated manner.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: