Bioaccumulation of Mineral Elements in Different Biological Substrates of Athletic Horse from Messina, Italy

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the levels and the potential bioaccumulation of vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), cobalt (Co), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), and bismuth (Bi) in horses from the industrial risk area of Sicily (Italy). Different biological substrates (whole blood, serum; tail and mane) and samples of hay, concentrate and water provided to the horses were processed by means of Thermo Scientific iCAP-Q ICP–MS spectrometer for mineral concentration. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied to show the differences in various trace elements in the biological substrates. Pearson’s test was applied to evaluate the correlation of mineral concentrations between whole blood and serum; and tail and mane. The results showed statistical differences of tested mineral elements among biological substrates; Cr whole blood concentrations were negatively correlated with serum concentrations and a positive correlation between whole blood and serum was observed for Cd and Bi. This latter also showed a positive correlation between mane and tail. The concentrations of V, Cr, and Pb in tail with serum and whole blood samples were negatively correlated, while the concentrations of Cd in tail and serum samples were positively correlated. Minerals had a non-homogenous distribution in the organism, showing different concentrations in the biological substrates.

Quantification of Some Heavy Metals in Hair of Dairy Cows Housed in Different Areas from Sicily as a Bioindicator of Environmental Exposure—A Preliminary Study

“…The accumulation of toxic elements in the body has a toxic effect not only on cattle but also on people who consume contaminated meat and milk [ 11 ]. The body uses various biochemical mechanisms to sequester the chemical elements as heavy metals in order to minimize their potential toxicological impact, thus hair should represent an important biological matrix for bioaccumulation [ 10 ].…”

“…The high Cr content found in group 3 was maybe due to substances containing heavy metals used for pesticide defense or for fertilization. Fazio et al [ 10 ] found lower concentration of Cr in horses’ manes and tail hair, 0.017 and 0.060 mg/kg, respectively. Salih and Aziz [ 2 ] detected a concentration of Cr in the scalp hair of workers in a steel factory in Iraq of 1.91 mg/kg, which was higher than the values herein obtained.…”

“…Chronic exposure to heavy metals through several routes results in their higher accumulation in different tissues [ 9 ]. Monitoring of biological materials (e.g., soft tissue, urine, hair, whole blood, and serum) indicates the environmental degradation status [ 9 , 10 ]. In the last two decades, the advent of high-precision analytical methods has allowed the study of the elemental composition of biological matrices and the formulation of the reference values of an element’s content in biological matrices [ 11 ].…”

“…In the body, mineral elements show a different affinity for each matrix and a different distribution between cellular and non-cellular compartments in the blood [ 10 ]. Hair fiber is a metabolically dead material after it leaves the epidermis.…”

“…Hair analysis can be useful to screen for long-term exposure to various chemical elements. Moreover, hair sampling is non-invasive and collected samples do not require refrigeration [ 10 ]. Since the concentration of minerals in hair is higher than in other tissues, the distribution of metals in this biological matrix reflects the concentration in the whole body over a longer period [ 2 , 12 ].…”