Levels, Tissue Distribution, and Age-Related Accumulation of Synthetic Musk Fragrances in Chinese Sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis):  Comparison to Organochlorines

Abstract

Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis) was listed as a Grade I protected animal in China in 1989, and the observed intersexual phenomenon and sex ratio deviation have suggested that chemicals have posed a risk as environment pollutants. This study analyzed seven musk fragrances in liver, muscle, heart, gonad, stomach, intestines, adipose, gill, pancreas, kidney, gallbladder, and roe from 13 female Chinese sturgeons, and the toxicokinetic behavior of musks were studied and compared with some organochlorines. Of the seven musks, HHCB, AHTN, and musk xylene were detected, and the highest concentrations were observed in adipose tissue: from 33.7 to 62.1 ng/g wet weight (ww), from 1.0 to 5.4 ng/g ww, and from 1.1 to 13 ng/g ww, respectively. Similar to the tissue distribution of DDTs and HCB, musks were detected frequently in high lipid content tissues such as roe, adipose, and liver, suggesting that tissue distribution of musks is controlled by the affinity to lipids. The concentration ratios based on lipid weight between roe and adipose were estimated to be 0.47 for HHCB, 0.58 for AHTN, and 0.51 for musk xylene, and those for the total DDTs and HCB were 0.27 and 0.61, which were relatively low compared with mammals. Relatively high concentrations of p,p'-DDE (68.4-449 ng/g ww) were detected in 10 of total 11 samples, which would cause the feminization of Chinese sturgeons during embryonic development. It was found that lipid-corrected concentrations of HHCB, AHTN, p,p'-DDE, and p,p'-DDD increased with age in female sturgeon, of which the trends were similar to those in fishes and different from those in mammals.

Occurrence of synthetic musk fragrances in human blood from 11 cities in China

“…The results indicated the widespread contamination of synthetic musk fragrances in the marine environment in China. The existence of synthetic musk fragrances in fish tissues of Chinese sturgeon has been verified by Hu et al [26]. Thus far, no study exists on the occurrence of synthetic musk fragrances in humans, such as in blood, human tissues, and mother's milk, in China.…”

“…In the present study, d 10 -fluoranthene was used as a surrogate standard, which was also adopted by other researchers because the compound showed similar physicochemical properties with musks such as logarithm octanol-water partition coefficient (5.22 for d 10 -fluoranthene [6] and 4-6 for musks [26,27]). To verify the suitability of d 10 -fluoranthene as a surrogate standard for all of synthetic musk compounds during the above pretreatment, the recovery experiments (1.5 mg/L, n ¼ 6) were conducted.…”

“…Thus, many women would have at least one baby when they were 26 to 40 years old. However, it was reported that mass transfer of accumulated lipophilic contaminants from mother to fetus would be a factor to influence the accumulation of organochlorines, dioxins, butyltin compounds [31][32][33], as well as synthetic musk fragrances [26]. Moreover, musks were verified detectable in a mother's milk [14].…”

Screening level ecological risk assessment for synthetic musks in surface water of Lake Taihu, China

“…9, 5.7, 4.3, and 4.9, respectively], SM are expected to bio-accumulate in aquatic biota. Previous studies have shown widespread occurrence of SM in aquatic biota including fish, crustaceans and mussels (Kannan et al 2005;Wan et al 2007), as well as top order predators such as sharks, seals, and finless porpoises (Nakata 2005). SM have also been detected in human adipose tissues (Müller et al 1996), blood plasma (Hutter et al 2005), and human breast milk (Duedahl-Olesen et al 2005;Reiner et al 2007;Zhang et al 2011).…”

Hexachlorobenzene sources, levels and human exposure in the environment of China

“…(Nakata et al, 2005a). Concentrations of OCPs in different tissues of Chinese Sturgeon were investigated (Wan et al, 2007). HCB was detected in all the samples, and HCB concentrations (224-2600 ng/g lipid wt.)…”