Dear All, On behalf of my co-authors, I am pleased to inform you of our recent publication in *Environment International *on the topic of marine mammal immunotoxicology:
Desforges, J.-P.W., Sonne, C., Levin, M., Siebert, U., De Guise, S., Dietz, R., 2016. Immunotoxic effects of environmental pollutants in marine mammals. Environ. Int. 86, 126–139. Abstract: Due to theirmarine ecology and life-history,marinemammals accumulate someof the highest levels of environ- mental contaminants of all wildlife.Given the increasing prevalence and severity of diseases inmarinewildlife, it is imperative to understand how pollutants affect the immune system and consequently disease susceptibility. Advancements and adaptations of analytical techniques have facilitated marine mammal immunotoxicology research. Field studies, captive-feeding experiments and in vitro laboratory studies with marine mammals have associated exposure to environmental pollutants, most notable polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), organo- chlorine pesticides and heavy metals, to alterations of both the innate and adaptive arms of immune systems, which include aspects of cellular and humoral immunity. For marine mammals, reported immunotoxicology endpoints fell into several major categories: immune tissue histopathology, haematology/circulating immune cell populations, functional immune assays (lymphocyte proliferation, phagocytosis, respiratory burst, and natu- ral killer cell activity), immunoglobulin production, and cytokine gene expression. Lymphocyte proliferation is by far themost commonly used immune assay, with studies using different organic pollutants and metals predom- inantly reporting immunosuppressive effects despite the many differences in study design and animal life histo- ry. Using combined field and laboratory data, we determined effect threshold levels for suppression of lymphocyte proliferation to be between b0.001–10 ppmfor PCBs, 0.002–1.3 ppm for Hg, 0.009–0.06 for MeHg, and 0.1–2.4 for cadmiumin polar bears and several pinniped and cetacean species. Similarly, thresholds for sup- pression of phagocytosis were 0.6–1.4 and 0.08–1.9 ppmfor PCBs and mercury, respectively. Although data are lacking for many important immune endpoints and mechanisms of specific immune alterations are not well understood, this reviewrevealed a systemic suppression of immune function inmarinemammals exposed to en- vironmental contaminants. Exposure to immunotoxic contaminants may have significant population level con- sequences as a contributing factor to increasing anthropogenic stress in wildlife and infectious disease outbreaks This article is available free online for a limited time at http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1S2cmaUJLC922 Sincerely, Jean-Pierre Desforges -- *Jean-Pierre Desforges* *Ph.D. Candidate* *Department of Bioscience, **Arctic Research Centre* *Aarhus University* *Frederiksborgvej 399* *4000 Roskilde - Denmark* *Phone: +45 87 15 85 67*
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