Biomarkers of oxidative stress in pine needles as a tool for the assessment of atmospheric pollution in Patagonia, Argentina

MITTON, FRANCESCA; MENONE MIRTA; LUKASZEWICS GERMAN; MONSERRAT JOSE M; FILLMANN GILBERTO; GONZALEZ MARIANA; MIGLIORANZA KARINA SILVIA BEATRIZ

Milan

Congreso; SETAC Europe 21st Annual Meeting,; 2011

SETAC

  Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are of environmental concern due to their recalcitrance, global distribution, and toxicity. Because these pollutants are known to generate Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) formation, organisms have evolved multiple systems of antioxidant defense, both enzymatic and non-enzymatic complex system. The aim of this work was to assess different oxidative stress biomarkers in response to atmospheric pollution in Patagonia, Argentina at regional scale using pine needles.  Levels of lipid peroxidation (MDA), glutathione-S-transferase (GST) activity and total antioxidant capacity (ACAP) were evaluated. Pine needles (Pinus sp.) were used to evaluate longitudinal (Rio Negro watershed) and latitudinal (Patagonia) transport by performing a network of 20 sampling stations. The Rio Negro watershed showed higher ACAP and GST activity than latitudinal sampling stations. Particularly, V. Regina, settled in the upper Rio Negro, the biomarkers showed the highest values. These results would be due to that this is an intensive area of fruit production known to be a hot spot of POPs like DDTs, endosulfans and PBDEs previously reported in our laboratory. Moreover, a decrease gradient in the biomarkers levels from west to east was observed, concomitantly with POPs levels. In the latitudinal transect, the northest sampling station (Bahia Blanca), presented the highest ACAP, GST and MDA levels decreasing to the south. As was observed in V. Regina, the results would suggest a relationship between biomarkers and POPs levels, mainly the insecticide endosulfan, although the influence of other pollution sources should not be discarded.  On the contrary, in the southest station (Rio Gallegos) a non direct relationship between biomarkers and POPs concentrations was observed. In conclusion, the results suggest that the biomarkers selected would be a useful tool in the atmospheric pollution assessment mainly associated with POPs occurrence. Considering the wide range of temperature among stations, future research focused on analyses of needle lipid classes, and temporal monitoring of POPs and biomarkers will be carried out.