Are soft tissues of urban rats good indicators of exposure to heavy metal pollution? A study conducted in one of the most polluted basins of Buenos Aires, Argentina

TRIPODI, MARIEL A.; MUSCHETTO, EMILIANO; CUETO, GERARDO; HANCKE, DIEGO; SUÁREZ, OLGA

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

SPRINGER

Año: 2020 vol. 192

0167-6369

The overall goal of this work was to analyze the relationship between the concentration of lead in the kidney, liver, and stomach contents of rats captured in a polluted urban basin and the concentration of this metalin the environment, meteorological factors, and different intrinsic characteristics of the individuals. To this end,we determined the concentration of lead in the kidney, liver, and stomach contents of 133 Norway rats (Rattusnorvegicus) captured in the Matanza-Riachuelo River Basin (Buenos Aires, Argentina). This basin is one ofthe most severe cases of water pollution in Latin America and metals like lead represent the most common chemical pollutants. Rats were trapped in nine sites with different soil and water lead concentrations, between 2014 and 2015. A positive relationship was found betweenlead concentration in the liver and kidney of R. norvegicus and the environmental concentration of this metal in water and soil. Although the remaining variables analyzed were also related to the lead concentrationin soft tissues, they did not affect the association between the lead concentration in soft tissues and that in the environment. The lead concentration in the stomach contents was not related to any of the variablesanalyzed. Our results constitute the first study in an urban basin with a gradient of environmental lead concentration and suggest that the quantification of lead in the kidney and liver of rats can be used as an indicator of exposure to this metal within a large city