Immune-relevant and new xenobiotic molecular biomarkers to assess anthropogenic stress in seals

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

“…In our case, our sea lions only regulated HSP70 during the acute phase of diet restriction-and showed no significant difference between controls and the chronic phases of diet restriction. Relevant HSP70 regulations have been previously observed in marine mammals that have been stressed (Fonfara et al, 2008;Weirup et al, 2013), but HSP70 is probably not a gene to systematically use as a stress response biomarker in marine ecosystems because it has a high plasticity of induction and expression response (Clark and Peck, 2009). This is further supported by our finding that this gene did not appear to be a relevant biomarker of nutritional stress in Steller sea lions.…”

“…Moreover, IL1 is directly involved in the regulation of CYP3A-and a down-regulation of CYP3A induced by an increase IL1 has been previously demonstrated (Sunman et al, 2004). Cytokine expression has also been previously investigated in blood samples from harbour seal pups in rehabilitation facilities, which showed higher RNA levels of IL1beta, IL6, IL8 and IL12 in starved seal pups at admission than after rehabilitation (Fonfara et al, 2008;Weirup et al, 2013). Regulation of CYP expression was also associated with pollutant exposure in wild seals (Kim et al, 2005;Hirakawa et al, 2007).…”

“…In summary, previous marine mammal studies of stress have mainly focussed on gene expression of immune responses (e.g., Fonfara et al, 2008;Müller et al, 2013;Weirup et al, 2013;Lehnert et al, 2014). Our study of gene expression is the first to investigate multiple pathways (including immune responses, stress responses, oxidative stress, and lipid and protein metabolism) in marine mammals subjected to nutritional express under controlled experimental conditions.…”

“…Changes in gene expression can provide explicit indicators of stress, and have an added advantage of being able to identify some specific physiological causes of stress (Steinberg et al, 2008;Veldhoen et al, 2012;Weirup et al, 2013). 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).…”

Molecular biomarkers in grey seals (Halichoerus grypus) to evaluate pollutant exposure, health and immune status

“…By using blood samples a minimally invasive sampling method is developed to determine baseline levels of various markers (Kakuschke et al, 2005) and it was the first time that ARNT, AHR & PPARa were established in grey seals. Transcription levels of biomarkers from a recent study on harbour seal pups in rehabilitation (Weirup et al, 2013) were compared to the results to account for species-specific differences. Baseline data of indicators for pollutant exposure and environmental stressors in the grey seal metabolism are important for the establishment of biomarkers to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic activities on vulnerable seal species.…”