The spinal nerves supplying the wing membranes of Japanese little horseshoe bats,
Rhinolophus cornutus
were studied. The wing membrane was innervated by nerve branches of the radial, ulnar, and median nerves, showing that the membrane was formed from the skin of the forelimb rather than that of the thoracolumbar skin. The radial nerve was mainly composed of the ventral rami of C7–T1, the ulnar nerve by C8–T2, and the median nerve by C8–T1. These components of
R. cornutus
tended to be from a narrower range of spinal nerves and to position more caudally than those of humans. In addition, the ulnar nerve showed a distribution pattern different from that of other mammals.
Cetaceans
accumulate high levels of environmental pollutants, yet
their toxicological studies have been difficult due to technical and
ethical issues. It is essential to identify and fill the current knowledge
gaps in the in vitro assays available for cetaceans.
The present study establishes a novel in vitro assay
that uses the fibroblasts of a finless porpoise (Neophocaena
asiaeorientalis) (FF) stranded in the Seto Inland
Sea (SIS) to answer questions about the cytotoxicity and risks of
environmental pollutants. FF were treated with 17 compounds including
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
and their metabolites (DDTs) and evaluated for cytotoxicity, viability,
and apoptosis. The results of FF were compared with those of human
fibroblasts (HF). The relative potencies of the test compounds were
comparable between the two species, as EC50 of these compounds
significantly correlated for FF and HF. Exposure-activity ratios (EARs)
revealed that accumulation of PCBs and DDTs are likely to pose adverse
effects at the cellular level in the SIS finless porpoises, as their
tissue concentrations exceeded EC50 values obtained in
this study. This study successfully evaluated the risks of environmental
pollutants using cetacean fibroblasts isolated by a non-invasive method
that may be applied to various cetacean species and compounds.
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