Cytokine and acute phase protein expression in blood samples of harbour seal pups

Fonfara, Sonja; Kakuschke, Antje; Rosenberger, Tanja; Siebert, Ursula; Prange, Andreas

doi:10.1007/s00227-008-1031-y

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Metals found in blood of the pups, e.g., Pb or Ni are known sensitizers for harbor seals [9]. Although a direct relationship to metal body burden cannot be shown, investigations of cytokines of harbor seal pups from the German North Sea coast suggest an activated immune system of the newborns directly after collection of the newborns [1,2].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Concentrations of Selected Essential and Non-essential Elements in Blood of Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Pups of the German North Sea

Kakuschke¹,

Griesel²,

Fonfara³

et al. 2008

Biol Trace Elem Res

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This study on harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) pups of the North Sea evaluated concentrations of 14 essential and non-essential elements (Al, As, Be, Ca, Cd, Cr, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Se, Sn, and Zn) in whole blood samples. The essential elements are analyzed to give references for health status determinations of pups. The measurement of classic toxic metals, like Pb or Cd, and other elements that may be in toxic concentrations in blood, is important due to their influence on health, particularly on the immune system. Blood samples of six seal pups found on the German Wadden Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein in 2004 and transported to the Seal Centre Friedrichskoog, Germany were collected. The blood sampling was performed three times, immediately after collection of the newborns, after 1.5 months, and after 2 months before their release back into the wild. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectrometry were used to determine the element concentrations. We found higher concentrations of Al, As, Fe, Mo, and Zn in blood samples of newborns compared to samples collected later, probably due to transplacental and lactational transfer from mother to fetus. Furthermore, there is a high need for, in particular, Fe and Zn in the developing organism, which may cause reduced values after some month. In contrast, the concentrations of Be, Cd, Ca, Cr, Pb, Mn, Ni, Se, and Sn, which were low in newborns and increased during the study, may be due to the fish fed to infant pups. Compared to free-ranging adults, in pups, the concentrations of Al, Ni, and Pb were higher in contrast to lower concentrations of As, Mn, and Mo. This case study is the first report on element levels in harbor seal pups of the North Sea.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies on seal pups. A useful way is the investigation of the newborn and infant pups living in the Seal Centre Friedrichskoog, Germany to get baseline information to health parameters of pups [1,2].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrations of Selected Essential and Non-essential Elements in Blood of Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Pups of the German North Sea

Kakuschke¹,

Griesel²,

Fonfara³

et al. 2008

Biol Trace Elem Res

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“…GAPDH has often been used as a normaliser in gene expression studies of seals and fur seals (Sharp et al, 2006;Fonfara et al, 2007Fonfara et al, , 2008, and has been shown to be stable in elephant seals experiencing prolonged fasts Suzuki et al, 2013). Nevertheless, the expression of reference genes can sometimes be influenced by stress or applied treatments, and GAPDH is part of the glycolytic pathway.…”

Section: Methodological Validationmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Among humans, gene expression profiles are commonly used as biomarkers of diseases or physiological stress (Strand et al, 2005;Abba et al, 2010;Zhou et al, 2012). Genomic responses to different stressors (such as thermal stress) have been reported in marine species (from coral to vertebrate species) under experimental and in situ conditions (Williams et al, 2003;Desalvo et al, 2008;Clark and Peck, 2009), while genes implicated in the immune response to pathogens or pollutants have also been studied in cell cultures as well as in whole organisms such as marine mammals (e.g., Fonfara et al, 2007;Mancia et al, 2007;Fonfara et al, 2008;Lehnert et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A nutrigenomic approach to detect nutritional stress from gene expression in blood samples drawn from Steller sea lions

Spitz

Becquet

Rosen

et al. 2015

Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular &

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“…Some of the selected primer sequences of these proposed bio-markers have already been published for belugas (Sitt et al, 2008;St-Laurent and Archambault, 2000), or for other marine mammal species such as harbor seals and harbor porpoises (Müller et al, 2013;Fonfara et al, 2008). Whenever a published set of primers are not available for belugas, published sequences for cetaceans and other related species were downloaded from GenBank and aligned by using the Clustal Omega software.…”

Section: Total Rna Extractionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of the Molecular Response of Belugas to Stressors""

Unal¹

2014

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Award Number: N000141410411 http://searesearch.org LONG-TERM GOALSThe overall goal of this project is to characterize the beluga immune response at the molecular level utilizing archived and fresh blood and skin samples collected in association with different stressors. In the long term, selected biomarkers found to be informative will be utilized in skin potentially eliminating the need for blood sampling from wild populations. OBJECTIVESThe specific objectives are listed as follows:1. To assess the quality and quantity of total RNA from blood and skin samples collected in the field from wild belugas, and compare with samples collected and archived from Aquarium belugas.2. To utilize archived tissues collected outside the proposed study to validate previously published primers for use in blood and skin from belugas.3. To apply molecular methods to describe and quantify changes in the expression of immunological "stress" markers in peripheral blood from captive and wild belugas.4. To apply molecular methods to describe and quantify the expression of immunological markers in skin.5. To correlate the biomarkers in blood from the proposed study to the findings of the previous ONR funded project (N00014-11-1-0437). APPROACHThe approach for the study includes the sample collection, isolation of total RNA followed by quality and quantity assessment, cDNA synthesis through reverse transcription, and amplification of mRNA sequences by using sequence-specific primers by real-time quantitative PCR.

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Cytokine and acute phase protein expression in blood samples of harbour seal pups

Cited by 31 publications

References 51 publications

Concentrations of Selected Essential and Non-essential Elements in Blood of Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Pups of the German North Sea

Concentrations of Selected Essential and Non-essential Elements in Blood of Harbor Seal (Phoca vitulina) Pups of the German North Sea

A nutrigenomic approach to detect nutritional stress from gene expression in blood samples drawn from Steller sea lions

Investigation of the Molecular Response of Belugas to Stressors""

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