Comparison of Metal Concentrations in Bones of Long-Living Mammals
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Comparison of Metal Concentrations in Bones of Long-Living Mammals Natalia Lanocha & Elzbieta Kalisinska & Danuta I. Kosik-Bogacka & Halina Budis & Sebastian Sokolowski & Andrzej Bohatyrewicz
Received: 2 November 2012 / Accepted: 17 January 2013 / Published online: 2 February 2013 # The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
Abstract The aim of this study was to compare zinc, copper, lead, cadmium, and mercury concentrations in the bones of long-living mammals—humans (Homo sapiens) and Canidae (dogs Canis familiaris and foxes Vulpes vulpes) from northwestern Poland and to determine the usefulness of Canidae as bioindicators of environmental exposure to metals in humans. Zinc concentrations in cartilage with adjacent compact bone and in spongy bone were highest in foxes (∼120 mg/kg dry weight (dw)) and lowest in dogs (80 mg/kg dw). Copper concentrations in cartilage with adjacent compact bone were greatest in foxes (1.17 mg/kg dw) and smallest in humans (∼0.8 mg/kg dw), while in spongy bone they were greatest in dogs (0.76 mg/kg dw) and lowest in foxes (0.45 mg/kg dw). Lead concentrations in both analyzed materials were highest in dogs (>3 mg/kg dw) and lowest in humans (>0.6 mg/kg dw). Cadmium concentration, also in both the analyzed materials, were highest in foxes (>0.15 mg/kg dw) and lowest in humans (>0.04 mg/kg dw). Mercury concentration in bones was low and did not exceed 0.004 mg/kg dw in all the examined species. The concentrations of essential metals in the bones of the examined long-living mammals were similar. The different concentrations of toxic metals were due to environmental factors. As bone tissues are used in the assessment of the long-term effects of environmental Communicated by D. I. Kosik-Bogacka N. Lanocha : E. Kalisinska : D. I. Kosik-Bogacka (*) : H. Budis Department of Biology and Medical Parasitology, Pomeranian Medical University, Powstancow Wielkopolskich 72, 70-111 Szczecin, Poland e-mail: [email protected] S. Sokolowski : A. Bohatyrewicz Chair and Clinic of Orthopedics and Traumatology, Pomeranian Medical University, Unii Lubelskiej 1, 71-252 Szczecin, Poland
exposure to heavy metals on the human body, ecotoxicological studies on the bones of domesticated and wild longliving mammals, including Canidae, may constitute a significant supplement to this research. Keywords Human . Dog . Red fox . Bioindicator . Bone tissue . Trace elements
Introduction Medium size and large wild mammals (mainly hunted species) and domesticated mammals are often used in comparative ecotoxicological studies [1–5]. Two important examples are the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) [6, 7] and the fox (Vulpes vulpes), commonly found in the entire Palearctic [8–10]. These species meet a number of criteria for bioindicators and show a measurable response to environmental pollutants, as documented in the works of various authors [3, 4, 7–10]. Researchers usually determine trace elements in their kidneys and liver, key organs in detoxification; bones are examined much less frequ
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