Very low levels of waterborne butyltins modulate hemocyte function in the blue mussel Mytilus edulis

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 236:155-161 (2002) - doi:10.3354/meps236155 Very low levels of waterborne butyltins modulate hemocyte function in the blue mussel Mytilus edulis S. D. St-Jean1,2, É. Pelletier2,*, S. C. Courtenay1 1Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Gulf Fisheries Centre, PO Box 5030, Moncton, New Brunswick E1C 9B6, Canada 2Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski (ISMER), Université du Québec à Rimouski, 310 Allée des Ursulines, Rimouski, Québec G5L 3A1, Canada *Corresponding author. E-mail: emilien_pelletier@uqar.qc.ca ABSTRACT: Hemocyte functions were used to determine the effect of very low concentrations (1, 3 and 6 ngSn l-1) of tributyltin (TBT) and dibutyltin (DBT) on the internal defense of adult blue mussel Mytilus edulis under flow-through conditions over 11 d. Hemolymph was sampled without harming mussels on Days 0, 1, 4 and 11 for measures of hemocyte count (HC), lysosome retention (LR) and phagocytic activity (PA). HC was increased from Day 1 by TBT at 6 ng l-1 and by DBT at 3 and 6 ng l-1 on Day 11. LR was increased by both butyltins at concentrations as low as 1 ng l-1 from Day 4. PA was increased by DBT at 6 ng l-1 from Day 4. No difference was detected between the impacts of TBT and DBT on LR but TBT had a greater impact on HC and DBT had a greater impact on PA. These results support the hypothesis that both TBT and DBT can cause modulations of the internal defense system of mussels at concentrations as low as 1 ngSn l-1 after only a few days of continuous exposure. KEY WORDS: Immunotoxicity · Butyltins · TBT · DBT · Mussels · Hemocyte · Functions · Low level exposure · LOEL Full text in pdf format PreviousNextExport citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 236. Online publication date: July 03, 2002 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2002 Inter-Research.