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Splenic and renal melanomacrophage centers in shorthorn sculpins (Myoxocephalus scorpius) in Nuuk harbor, West Greenland

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Abstract

The Nuuk harbor is the largest industrial port in Greenland. It is polluted by a number of contaminants including tributyltin (TBT), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Here we analyzed melanomacrophage center (MMC) responses in the spleen and kidney of shorthorn sculpins (Myoxocephalus scorpius) from the harbor and three reference sites in Nuuk, West Greenland. The number and area of splenic MMCs in fish from the most polluted station were significantly lower than those from the less polluted stations (p < 0.01). This suggests that the immune response differed between the fish from the contaminated site and those from the reference sites. This indicates that splenic MMCs of shorthorn sculpins could have a biomarker potential for pollutant exposure. This was, however, not the case for renal MMCs. In addition, this study showed that there were effects of body size on the splenic and renal MMC responses. Therefore, in future studies, body size of shorthorn sculpins needs to be considered when investigating splenic and renal MMC responses.

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Funding

The University of Tasmania is acknowledged for funding Mai Dang’s PhD scholarship and supporting her research. The Ministry of Environment and Food, Denmark and the Environmental Agency for Mineral Resources Activities, Greenland is acknowledged for supporting the field trip by which our archival samples were collected.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Launceston, TAS, 7250, Australia

    Mai Dang, Megan Stride, Khattapan Jantawongsri & Barbara Nowak

  2. Department of Bacteriology, Institute for Veterinary Research and Development of Central Vietnam, km 4, 2/4 Street, Vinh Hoa, Nha Trang, Khanh Hoa, 57000, Vietnam

    Mai Dang

  3. Department of Bioscience, Faculty of Science and Technology, Arctic Research Centre (ARC), Aarhus University, Frederiksborgvej 399, PO Box 358, 4000, Roskilde, Denmark

    Rasmus Nørregaard, Christian Sonne, Lis Bach & Barbara Nowak

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  1. Mai Dang
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  2. Rasmus Nørregaard
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  3. Christian Sonne
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  4. Lis Bach
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  5. Megan Stride
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  6. Khattapan Jantawongsri
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  7. Barbara Nowak
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Contributions

MD: conceptualization; data analysis; methodology; validation; visualization; investigation, writing—original draft; writing—review and editing. RN: sample collection, investigation, writing—review and editing. CS: investigation, resources, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing. LB: investigation, resources, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing. MS: investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision. KJ: investigation, writing—review and editing. BN: conceptualization, investigation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Barbara Nowak.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

We used archival samples in this study, collected previously for other studies. Therefore, ethic approval is waiver for this study. The collection method (described in this paper) was according to Greenland regulations and conducted by a FELASA certificated member (FELASA Accreditation No 32/10/288).

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Dang, M., Nørregaard, R., Sonne, C. et al. Splenic and renal melanomacrophage centers in shorthorn sculpins (Myoxocephalus scorpius) in Nuuk harbor, West Greenland. Polar Biol 44, 2011–2021 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-021-02934-0

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