Skin biopsy slices of cetaceans as a multi-response “in vitro” method to detect toxicological effects of lipophilic contaminants.

The need for powerful new tools to detect the effects of POPs, emerging contaminants and PAHs on Mediterranean cetaceans led us to develop and apply a suite of sensitive biomarkers for slice integument biopsies of stranded and free-ranging animals, as a multi-response in vitro method to detect toxicological effects of contaminant mixtures. In this study, we applied an in vitro assay using skin biopsy and liver slices, combining molecular biomarkers (Western blot of CYP1A1, CYP2B) and gene expression levels (qRT-PCR of CYP1A1, HSP70, ERα and E2F-1) in response to chemical exposure (OCs, PBDEs, PAHs) for stranded Mediterranean Stenella coeruleoalba. The main goal of this experiment was to identify among the various assays the biomarker and/or series of biomarkers that best allows us to diagnose the presence of a specific class of pollutants (OCs, PBDEs, PAHs) or a mixture of them for future investigations in field studies.